Newly renovated Nokuphila Clinic, in Dobsonville Ext2, hosted an Open Day for its patients and community geared at creating educational and health awareness last week.
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The event aimed at promoting health and strengthening relations between the facility and the community, introduced some of the facility’s services, the clinic staff and its clinic committee made up of volunteers.
“We want people to get information from this day, and go to their homes and implement some of which they got here so that we can have communities that are healthy.
“We believe in the health being in the hands of the people. So we want people to be capacitated, informed and make informed decisions.
“We believe that if they have information and are able to practice things within their homes, we will even reduce the number of people we see in clinics,” said Asiphe Mkumbuzi, Health Promoter at Nokuphila clinic.
Various other stakeholders including Social Development, Environmental Health and Soweto Comprehensive Cancer Health were also present at the open day.
The clinic is categorised as a primary health care facility by the City of Johannesburg.
It was closed in September 2021 due to renovations, and has been operating from Kopanong until September 2022. In its new changes, it also announced its extended hours of service to Saturdays.
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“We are a preventative clinic so we work to prevent disease and promote health. We want people to be able to come into our facilities and access these services and initiatives to curb any arising concerns while it’s still early,” she said. “We continuously have health education and hand wash demonstration, which is paramount in breaking transmission of diseases since the cholera outbreak,” Mkumbuzi elaborates.
Busiswe Nkwanyana, Ward Committee member in the portfolio of health in ward 48, applauded the initiative citing that residents didn’t understand how this facility operates resulting in many being turned away.
Nkwanyana said while the open day would educate patients, there were concerning challenges at the health centre since its reopening last year.
“We feel since the renovations, the clinic has changed important things. Our biggest concern there is no longer a dedicated file room, which means the information of patients can easily be misplaced or lost.
“The sisters working here no longer have their own toilets, the clinic is small and so instead of improving, we are of the view that it has made it worse.”
She cited among their concerns, they would advocate for the clinic to have its own space for agricultural projects to promote healthy organic foods.
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“I hope through the Cllr and management of the clinic, we can approach the relevant health departments to intervene because our communities do not deserve a facility with resources not functioning effectively,” she concluded.
