Prudence Matinise* has been waiting in the sun behind the red-brick wall of Raglan Road Clinic in Fingo Village for two hours.
Prudence Matinise* has been waiting in the sun behind the red-brick wall of Raglan Road Clinic in Fingo Village for two hours.
She says it is too cold in the reception area where a queue of about 10 people, some who have been waiting since 7.30am, are hoping the nurses will finish their tea break soon.
“They don’t care. It makes me feel angry,” says Matinise. When Grocott’s Mail reporters visited five healthcare centres in Grahamstown, long queues of weary patients were the order of the day.
All the clinics were understaffed and the nurses seemed equally weary. At Joza Clinic, 20 patients were waiting on wooden benches and another 20 along the passageway.
Head nurse NE Dyantyi says the clinic is “full up” and adds that the five nurses sometimes have to work through their lunch breaks.
A volunteer nurse sitting outside the empty Mayfield TB clinic in Extension 9 says that because the clinic became specialised in tuberculosis, all other patients have to make their way to Joza clinic.
Back at Raglan Road clinic, those in the queue are losing patience. One patient says the five nurses have been on their tea break for an hour.
When one nurse comes out, she tells her co-workers to get back to work. Another nurse denies that patients have been waiting for a long time.
In Grahamstown West, Anglo-African Sweet clinic has no bell or receptionist upon arrival. All consulting room doors are closed, including one with a sign saying, “Open this door! Fresh air fights TB.”
“No one comes to talk to us. Every day they do like this,” says Lulana Mfamana from Hlalani. But speak to the clinic head nurse, NM Ndukwana, and you soon realise that poor service delivery is not necessarily the fault of the staff at a clinic with volunteer receptionists and only two nurses on duty, one of whom is officially retired.
“The one who is responsible for everything is me,” says Ndukwana. She looks dapper in a grey uniform, but her weary eyes tell the story of long working hours.
Her list of duties includes administration, statistics, counselling, treating patients, and carrying out HIV/Aids programmes.
She says she has been begging for a third nurse from the Makana Council Primary Health Centre (PMC)
since last year to no avail.
A notice at reception requesting patients not from Grahamstown West to visit clinics in their own areas is largely ignored.
“The system is not working, and there’s no one to support us with that,” says Ndukwana. She also understands the rights of patients to attend any clinic. “We all do have rights, but we also have responsibilities,” she says, referring to the need for patients to visit local healthcare centres.
Makana Municipality spokesperson Thandy Matebese refused to comment about understaffed clinics and long queues.
The referral clinic at Settler’s Day Hospital has at least eight nurses working in its clinic section. But according to one employee, HIV/ Aids related illnesses means the nurses are no less overworked than at other health centres.
Outside Raglan Road clinic, Prudence* watches two boys in school uniforms having sword fights with wooden sticks.
One of the boys’ grandmothers, who has no complaints about waiting, clutches onto five white stapled zip lock bags with her grandson’s antiretrovirals as she gets ready to leave.
She does not look hopeful as she heads back to reception to see if the backlog from the nurses’ tea break has subsided.
While long queues at Grahamstown health centres may be frustrating for many patients, understaffed and overworked nurses at are doing their best to tend to their needs. *Not her real name
