New clinic, healthier future
"The building of the clinic is currently in year one, which is the planning phase. The concept has been completed and it's a beautiful clinic."
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DA and the Health and Social Development MMC Dr Mpho Phalatse held a public meeting on February 21 in which they updated the residents of ward 14 about the new clinic that is set to be built in Naledi.
Dr Phalatse noted that building in the City of Johannesburg (COJ) takes place on a three-year cycle. “The building of the clinic is currently in year one, which is the planning phase. The concept has been completed and it’s a beautiful clinic,” Dr Phalatse said.
The next two years in the cycle are for construction and the commissioning of the clinic according to Dr Phalatse. The beginning of the construction process has however been held off due to sensitive biodiversity that has been identified on the land designated for the clinic.
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“The city’s department of environment and infrastructure services is currently doing environmental assessments and will advise if that is a suitable site or not,” Dr Phalatse continued.
She adds that her department is also working on a contingency plan should the site be deemed unfit for construction. Residents of ward 14 used the opportunity to inform Dr Phalatse of the problems they were experiencing at the temporary clinic in Naledi.
Busiswe Nodad said: “when we go to the clinic to get prevention medication we are told that there are no pregnancy tests so we can’t get prevention. I ask myself if the government wants us to get pregnant so we can receive child support grants.”
Ms Nodad further noted that patients never receive their pap smear results. “The government encourages women to take care of our health but when we try they keep our results from us, so how are we supposed to know what is happening in our bodies?” she continued.
Dr Phalatse promised to follow up on the residents’ complaints. She noted that COJ’s health department is being short-changed by the provincial government which does not allocate enough funds to ensure that all clinics in the city are well stocked and staffed.
Gauteng province allocated R40 billion for health according to BusinessTech and the COJ allocated a total of R6 billion to the human and social development cluster in the 2017/2018 financial year.
