30 May 2023
At Stanza Bopape Clinic in Mamelodi, Pretoria, patients wait for six hours to be seen. Photo: Warren Mabona
Patients in need of chronic, acute and maternal care say they wait for hours at the Stanza Bopape Clinic in Mamelodi, Pretoria, on weekends.
The clinic is the only public health facility in the community.
Several patients, who regularly get treatment at Stanza Bopape, say that the problem is that only the emergency unit operates on weekends. Patients needing non-urgent treatment have to wait.
We visited the clinic on a Saturday and a Sunday at about 2pm. More than 30 people were sitting on the benches at the entrance to the emergency unit. Elizabeth Nzimande said she arrived at 9am and was still waiting to be seen.
She said she was in pain and went straight to the emergency unit, “but the nurses told me to stand in this queue because my pains are not an emergency”.
“Sitting in this cold weather for more than four hours made my pains worse. I’m desperate to know what I’m suffering from and to get treatment,” she said.
Lesley Malatjie said he waited for three hours in “excruciating pain”.
“Spending so much time in the cold while I’m sick is not good. The slow movement of this queue shows that this clinic is under-staffed,” he said.
Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said, “The emergency unit is mainly for emergency cases such as stab and gunshot wounds that need to be managed at the facility.”
“It is true that emergency patients are prioritised but it is not true that other patients are ignored on Saturdays and Sundays. Patients are being triaged and those who require urgent medical attention are seen first.”
From 3 April the clinic extended its operating hours on weekdays and Saturdays in response to the increased demand and to reduce pressure on the emergency unit, said Modiba.
Modiba said that the clinic has two doctors and four nurses, who treat all the patients on Saturdays and Sundays. He said that the waiting area of the clinic often does not accommodate all the patients. He said the department is looking at getting an additional waiting area.
Modiba said that the clinic has two doctors and four professional nurses who treat all patients on Saturdays and Sundays. He said the clinic is the only 24-hour community health centre in the area and sees more than a thousand patients on weekends per month.