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50 signatures reached
To: Mrs Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, MEC Department of Health, Gauteng Province, Mr Jonathan Mavhungu, REM (South), City of Ekurhuleni Municipality.
Bring back the mobile clinic in Ekurhuleni townships, ASAP.
*[Campaign update] We attended the Katlehong Imbizo on the 20th of Nov 2024, where we spoke to the Mayor concerning the mobile clinic crisis in Vosloorus. The mayor said he'll conduct further investigation. Even though our campaign demands of getting back all the services that were provided by the old mobile clinic have not been fully met, we have started seeing the Wits RHI Mobile Clinic, which provides only HIV and TB testing in Mailula Park which was not there before. We will not stop until we receive all the primary healthcare services including child immunisation, family planning, treatment of minor ailments, weight & child development monitoring, etc that were initially provided by the Ekurhuleni Mobile Clinic.
To the MEC of the Department of Health in Gauteng Province, Mrs Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, and the REM in charge of the Health Department in the South region of the City of Ekurhuleni Municipality, Mr Jonathan Mavhungu, we demand that you bring the services of the mobile clinic back to our townships, particularly around Vosloorus, as it were before it was stopped this January:
To the MEC of the Department of Health in Gauteng Province, Mrs Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, and the REM in charge of the Health Department in the South region of the City of Ekurhuleni Municipality, Mr Jonathan Mavhungu, we demand that you bring the services of the mobile clinic back to our townships, particularly around Vosloorus, as it were before it was stopped this January:
● We want to know why it was discontinued in the first place.
● We need it to resume its weekly operational schedule of Mondays and Thursdays as soon as the next month.
Why is this important?
South African poor, black women are the face of health inequity [1]. Go to any public healthcare facility around the country's townships and you're likely to find snaking queues characterized by grant earners who are mainly there for their newborns, ailing or child immunization visits, or their own family planning services. This, unfortunately, happens on a daily. I should know because I am one of those women.
When my daughter was born on a cold June midday twelve months ago, I was immediately advised to take her to my nearest clinic for her three day's checkup. When I got there, the sister who had examined us then informed me that from then on, I would have to make use of the mobile clinic which operated around the area of Mailula Park in Vosloorus every Mondays and Thursdays. It was a relief to know that I wouldn't have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, prepare myself and my newborn to brave the snaking queues every time just for her to get immunized. With the mobile clinic which always arrived at 10 O'clock on Thursday mornings, as per my day of preference, I would get there at the same time and got serviced without any hassles. However, with the main polyclinic, it was almost mandatory that parents bringing their children should get there before 8 O'clock or risk getting their heads bitten off by grumpy staff workers who didn't want to have to work overtime, understandably so.
The mobile clinic was a welcomed convenience, particularly for those women who lived in the informal settlement of Extension 20, that is far away from poly clinic as that meant that they no longer had to travel, either using money that they don't have for taxi fare, or by walking that long distance with sick children on their backs. However, when I took my baby for her nine month's immunization to the mobile clinic one March Thursday morning, I was shocked to find that I was the only one there with absolutely no queue in sight. A nearby neighbour eventually informed me that the service had been discontinued since January, apparently due to shortage of staff. I found it rather bizarre that that could've been an acceptable reason as it was just in September of 2018 that informal settlements that are not within 3 - 5 km radius from an established clinic around the city were promised to receive healthcare at a step closer through an additional 14 mobile clinics [2]. At my child's recent twelve month's immunization visit, I arrived at poly shortly after 7 O'clock to avoid her picking up germs by staying in the clinic longer than necessary while waiting to get serviced. Needless to say that that was a pointless exercise as not only was I beaten to the front of the queue, but there were scores of mothers who had brought their newborns to their three day's checkup, who arrived after me and had to be placed at the front of the queue as per the clinic's rule. No mother would have any problem with that as we had all been there before and appreciated the Ubuntu. In fact, it had already clocked 11am when one frail looking new mom came in and sat next to me at the reception where I was still waiting to get registered. I told her she didn't have to queue for the three day's checkup, to which she replied and said that she was already denied that privilege as she only arrived then and not before 8 O'clock. I could tell she had not slept a wink and was immediately reminded of my first 72 hours with a colicky infant. I felt it was unacceptable that she was expected to wait about four hours like I just had, just for herself and newborn to get examined. In summary, I asked those who came after me if she could at least be placed in front of us. I left the clinic two hours later, which makes it a total of six hours, with a flu infected child.
The World Health Organisation stated that any reform in primary healthcare represents a single great opportunity for the improvement of the lives of people and performance of the healthcare system as a whole [3]. Therefore, the convenience to basic healthcare services is not a privilege, it is a human right. Act now and let us remind the City of Ekurhuleni Municipality of the promise that they made in making basic healthcare services accessible to the poor. Sign this petition below.