Residents of Hoopstad in the Free State are calling for better healthcare services. They also want a 24-hour operational clinic. Residents say they have to walk long distances to town to access the clinic and hospital as there are no healthcare facilities in the township.
Frustrated residents want access to healthcare. They want a mobile clinic in the township.
Seventy-two-year-old Selisina Bereng has to walk to the clinic to fetch her chronic medication and some days she comes back empty handed.
“I didn’t get assistance, I arrived around 7am and had to wait for my card for tomorrow’s doctor’s appointment,” says Bereng.
Residents say it’s costly for them to travel to town to visit the clinic. Now they are calling for a mobile clinic
“When you get to the clinic, there is nothing to eat. You will arrive at 7 in the morning and by lunch time you’re not assisted yet,” a resident says.
“When you call an ambulance, it takes time. And you’ll find out you have a serious emergency, you can imagine the risk and you’ll be told that there is one ambulance working,” another resident explains.
“You go there early in the morning and come back in the evening, even if you get sick on a weekend you have to wait for Monday,” a resident laments.
“Sometimes we struggle especially on weekends because our clinic is not a 24 hour operation and there won’t be doctors,” another resident reiterates.
Earlier this month, government unveiled 191 new ambulances and mobile clinics as part of operation Phethisa. The Department of Health says they are considering hiring more staff and extending operating hours of the clinic.
“We have studied the area and we’ve made a dedication that priority number one is to build a clinic closer to where people are because the township has been growing. In the current clinic, we see on average 2 600 a month so it’s quite a concern, those are primary healthcare issues,” says Free State Health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi.
Residents are hoping for an urgent intervention.
