South Africa: Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae and MEC for Health Monyatso Mahlatsi made an unannounced visit to MUCPP clinic in Mangaung. The leadership of the province has been working hard to deliver quality services to the various communities within the district.
The leaders have shared that it is important for the leaders to keep a track of the needs of the communities. The leaders of the province are also responsible for actively take steps to address the problems that communities are facing.
In line with this mandate, the Premier of Free State and MEC for health met the patients at the MUCPP clinic. The officials have shared that the visit was aimed towards getting an unbiased picture of the facilities
One of the patients complained to Premier Letsoha–Mathae and the MEC about long waiting hours. The patients, most of whom were elderly people, also complained about they were yelled at by workers at the institution.
Both the elderly and the young decried the long waiting hours at the clinic. An elderly woman, clutching her walking stick, said she had been at the clinic since 6 am in the morning.
By 15:00, she and many others, were still at the clinic. Another woman openly cried and explained to both the Premier and the MEC that she arrived in the morning and had still not received help
In addition to having to wait for hours on end to receive their medication or being attended to by healthcare professionals, patients further decried the manner in which the workers spoke to them. That certainly caught Premier Letsoha – Mathae’s ire.
The individual, who was singled out by patients to be guilty of such conduct, apologised when confronted by the Premier and MEC.
“What we are not going to do is to constantly monitor and manage you. I think all of you were properly trained to not only treat, but also how to speak to patients.
All these people are not here because they like being here, but they have health issues and rely on yourselves to assist them. However, if you yell at them, you are only making a bad situation worse. We therefore appeal to you to treat our people with care and dignity. I hope that moving forward, the situation will greatly improve,” said Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae.
The hospital management promised to greatly improve their service.
