An elderly woman walked into Raglan Road Clinic crying and in pain on Tuesday. Accompanying her was a woman who asked the patients in the queue to allow her to move to the front as she was very sick. They agreed. The nurse on duty just looked at the old woman and said in a cold tone, “I’m going for a tea-break, she can wait for Sister Wendy to come on duty.”
An elderly woman walked into Raglan Road Clinic crying and in pain on Tuesday. Accompanying her was a woman who asked the patients in the queue to allow her to move to the front as she was very sick. They agreed. The nurse on duty just looked at the old woman and said in a cold tone, “I’m going for a tea-break, she can wait for Sister Wendy to come on duty.”
The woman waited for 20 more minutes before the nurse attended to her. A Grocott’s Mail journalist went to the staff room and told the nurses who were all on a tea-break including the receptionist that the patients were complaining.
Banele Tshaka, a patient, said that he was at the clinic from 8am and he was still waiting at 11am. He said the nurses were very slow and they have been on a tea-break since 10am. The sister in charge at the clinic did not want to comment about this situation as she said the journalists were not allowed to report about the clinic.
At Joza Clinic, Nobathembu Bolani, a patient, said she was there from 8:30am and it was 10am. She said it will take a couple of hours before she gets her turn because she was still at back of the queue, even though the clinic had five nurses on duty. The head nurse at the clinic NE Dyantyi said, “We are full up. The population of this clinic is high. We even work into our lunches. One client can take up to an hour and half.”
The Assistant Director of the Primary Health Centre, Noel Isaacs, could not be reached for comment.
