Dying diggers of Namaqualand need saving
| by Reinette Liebenberg, MPL – DA Northern Cape Constituency Head for Central North |
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| Date: 22 May 2020 |
| Release: Immediate |
| Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbites in English & Afrikaans from Reinette Liebenberg, MPL. The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape is urging the Health Department to put back-up systems in place in understaffed rural areas, to ensure the sustainability of health care services.This comes after the residents of Van Wyksvlei were left without any health services for nearly a week, after the sister at the local clinic resigned. The clinic simply shut down, without even so much as a notice being posted on the front door. At the same time, the overstretched ambulance services refused to transport patients to Carnarvon in order to get their medicines, as they were not classified as emergency cases. Simultaneously, one patient had to wait for more than five hours to be transported to Carnarvon, due to the fact that the clinic wasn’t open to attend to his bed sores and infections.Aside from being stranded without basic health services, patients were also left without chronic medication, posing a serious threat to their wellbeing.The DA notes that, a day after we complained to the Ministry of Health about the clinic closure, it was eventually reopened. This, however, is not good enough and exposes a serious weakness in the health system.Should Coronavirus spread to the province’s outlying towns, health care workers may take ill and facilities may be forced to close. This will be especially detrimental in smaller towns, where there are very limited health personnel and facilities.The DA is thus appealing to the MEC of Health, Mase Manopole, to ensure that contingency plans are in place to prevent health services coming to halt.If the sister at Van Wyksvlei clinic, or any other facility for that matter, tests positive for Coronavirus and the facility closes, who will provide health services to the community and who will ensure that supply of medication doesn’t come to a standstill for all the patients with TB, HIV, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic diseases?The collapse of the health system is perhaps the greatest threat of the Covid-19 pandemic. This must be prevented at all costs. Otherwise, the impact of the disease will be much more far reaching that we could ever have imagined. |
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