People urged to use local clinics
MEC for Health, Hope Papo, urges the community to make use of local clinics.
MEC for Health, Hope Papo, last Thursday urged the community to make use of clinics prior to visiting central hospitals, which are bursting high volumes of patients.
Papo said the number of people visiting hospitals has grown unusually in the last three months indicating an increasing pressure faced by the health facilities because of the burden of diseases.
“The number of people who attended the hospitals grew to more than 2,6 million (2 671 465) between June and July this year.
“This is an increase of more than 600 000 when compared to the 2 038 million (2 038 600) recorded in the three months period between last year October and December,” he said.
Paso said this increase in patient loads is placing unbearable pressure on staff, infrastructure, budgets and equipment at all facilities.
“We call on our people to make use of local clinics for minor illnesses and to collect chronic medication to ease pressure on our hospitals.
“All community health centres offer maternity services and 26 of them operate on 24 hour basis.
“All community health centres and clinics now provide services for patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, epilepsy TB and people who take ARV treatment,” he said.
