Broken machinery and no manager at busy Soweto clinic

5 July 2018

The Lillian Ngoyi Community Health Centre in Soweto sees more than 200 000 patients a year, but has a vacant manager’s post and struggles with broken equipment.

According to a written reply by Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature, the clinic has vacancies for a manager, an enrolled nursing assistant and a cleaner.

It has a shocking amount of broken equipment, including the following:

One ECG machine;

Five Dynamaps;

Two Pulse Oximeters;

Seven baby scales;

One emergency trolley;

One maternity delivery bed;

Five dressing trolleys and

15 Blood Pressure machines

Most serious is that the x-ray machine has been out of action for 27 days this year. Ramokgopa says that this was because of a shortage of x-ray film as a supplier did not have a tax clearance certificate as required by tender.

This meant that patients had to be transferred elsewhere for x-rays at great inconvenience and risk because of delayed diagnosis.

There were also shortages of gauze and cotton wool because a supplier had not been paid.

I am concerned by the broken machinery and shortage of essential supplies that bedevils this large health facility which is usually crowded with patients.

It puts great strain on doctors and nurses who struggle to provide decent treatment without proper tools.

This clinic needs urgent intervention to ensure better management and machinery that works.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 5 July 2018