“The level of service and healthcare at this clinic is totally unacceptable. Section 27 of the Constitution guarantees us the right to health. Yet in Goederede Clinic, like so many more health facilities across Mpumalanga, this right is not even close to being met,” said Sibusiso Mashiteng, TAC Mpumalanga Provincial Chairperson.
—————————-
KWAGGAFONTEIN, South Africa, 17th JULY 2017 – Today 50 members of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in Mpumalanga are picketing outside Goederede Clinic because of its failure to provide adequate healthcare services to the community. Patients who use the clinic face excessive waiting times, poor staff attitudes, undignified and unhygienic toilets, and shortages of medicines and equipment. Despite efforts to engage staff and authorities since last year, the problems at the clinic have yet to be resolved.
“TAC receives complaint after complaint from people in the community about the state of the services at Goederede Clinic,” says TAC Boekenhoudhoek Chairperson Ellias Mtshweni. “People wait all day, to never be seen. We get to the clinic, only to be sent home empty handed without the medicines we need. The nurses are under-resourced. Often, they are rude to us. We wait outside, even in the rain. We are forced to relieve ourselves without any privacy in dirty toilets. Goederede clinic is in crisis”
TAC and community members are picketing today to demand urgent action to address the following issues (the full memorandum outlining the concerns in more detail is here):
