Note to Editors: Please find the attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans from the DA Councillor, Nicol Muller.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Kagisano Molopo will write to the MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha, requesting him to immediately intervene in rural Bray Community Health Centre to ensure the appointment of medical doctors and make provision for patient transport services.
During an oversight inspection and engagement the staff the DA found that Bray Clinic does not have a permanent doctor on staff, a rotating doctor has to travel to the village, travelling long distances on dangerously dilapidated roads.
The facility also does not have an optometrist, the nearest visiting optometrist comes only to Morokweng, which is at least 130 kilometres away, and only opens two days in a year. A child diagnosed with a deformed eye is now on a waiting list until next year to see an optometrist because the patient transport did not come to pick patients.
Bray Clinic patients that need medical transfer transport to Ganyesa or Joe Morolong hospital are constantly being left stranded due to a severe lack of reliable patient transport services.
Patient lives are put at risk daily, one patient who needed an immediate C-section had to wait two days for an ambulance to the nearest hospital. An ambulance only came after her condition became an “emergency”.
The justification for the lack of patient transport services seems to be the bad road condition. This is inexcusable since the management of clinics and roads both fall under government functions.
In a nearby town, residents of Tosca have to travel at least 70 kilometres for a single trip and pay R60 to get to Bray Clinic to collect HIV/AIDS, TB and chronic disease medication. This adds to the living costs of mostly poor patients who desperately need medication, but also money to buy food and other necessities.
Staff also informed us that they suffered a persistent 6-week interruption in water supply The DA found that the booster pump at the clinic was broken and could not pump water into the water tanks. The DA escalated the issue to the District Municipality, the booster pump was fixed and the water supply was restored.
It is unacceptable that 25 years into our democracy, the people of North West have to suffer poor medical treatment at the hands of a dysfunctional ANC-government.
The DA will also ask the MEC to make provision for a permanent clinic at Tosca so patients do not travel a long distance to get medical attention.
Where the DA governs in the Western Cape, hospitals and clinics are fully staffed and fully equipped. Our patient transport system Healthnet delivers patients to medical facilities in real-time. In fact, 9 out of 10 people in the Western Cape province live within 30 minutes of a health facility.
This is the type of service a DA government can bring not only to Bray, but to North West as whole.