The DA calls on the Mpumalanga Departments of Health as well as Public Works to prioritise maintaining and refurbishing our dilapidating clinics and community health centers.
Recently, the DA conducted an oversite visit at the Nelspruit Community Healthcare Centre in Bell Street (Ward 16 Mbombela) after many complaints from the nursing staff and management regarding the current state at the clinic.
The DA found the following:
* Some of the taps are running non-stop,
* Several rest rooms are cordoned off and no one may use them since
they are not working,
* Some of the urinals are out of order,
* The air-conditioning unit is not working,
* Some of the basins do not have any taps installed,
* Some of the taps are loose on the basins,
* There are basins missing,
* Some of the electrical sockets are not working and they are not able to use them.
The above issues have persisted for nearly two years. The management of the center and the healthcare workers went as far as requesting assistance from the DA as the provincial government has failed to help them.
According to the health workers and management, the Department of Health have informed them that they do not have money to fix their facilities and that they must wait for the new financial year for money to be made available.
Because this is a provincial issue, we will pass this on to your DA counterparts in the Provincial Legislature so that they can raise it with Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane and Health MEC Sasekani Manzini to urgently fix the issues in the Health Centre.
Nelspruit Community Healthcare Centre is not the only dilapidated facility in Mpumalanga, but several clinics and hospitals are in a poor state as well.
We hope that the Legislature’s Health Portfolio committee can conduct an oversight at all provincial clinics, healthcare centers and hospitals, to see for themselves the continuous dilapidating nature of these public institutions so that they can come back with recommendations for immediate and long-term solutions.