According to the chairperson of the committee, Gavin Edwards, an oversight visit was conducted at the Motswedi Clinic near Lehurutshe earlier this week. 

The committee discovered health workers were performing their duties without functional lights and running water in a dilapidated building. He explained the committee also found the clinic is located at an unused school building which is neither accessible to wheelchairs nor disability-friendly. The main structure is not suitable for healthcare services. He said there are also space limitations at the clinic and as result, medical fridges are kept in waiting areas. Medical supplies are kept in areas obstructed by examination beds. Edwards expressed his concerns and further called for the Department of Health to urgently intervene as the matter is compromising the health system.

The Provincial Health spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane, told OFM News that the department has noted the report by the Committee concerning the Motswedi Clinic. It has sent a district management team with the infrastructure personnel to visit the facility and come up with remedial actions. Lekgethwane stated that the long-term plan to build a new Community Health Centre for Motswedi has also started.

Meanwhile, Edwards stated that nurses and other workers could not be expected to treat patients in a facility that does not have the basic necessities, such as water and electricity. Practicing hand hygiene is a simple yet effective way to prevent infections in healthcare settings.

“Hand hygiene – washing with soap and water and using an alcohol-based hand sanitiser – is essential to patients and healthcare workers and good for the safety and prevention of the spreading of germs. Healthcare workers, who recently recovered from the immense pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic, are also placed in a tough working environment and exposed to infections and risk. “It is completely saddening that these workers are forced to use rainwater in Jojo tanks to wash their hands. The recent measles outbreak is a cause for concern as this healthcare facility does not practice clean hygiene,” he said.

Edwards further said the access roads leading to the clinic are in a bad condition and as a result, there is a general lack of ambulances at the clinic.

OFM News