Residents of Bishop Lavis have established a health forum in an effort to address poor service delivery at the Bishop Lavis Community Health Centre.
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This comes in the wake of numerous complaints of poor staff behavior, delays in attending to patients, the untidiness of the facility, patients being turned away without medication on their appointment dates and being sent to containers that were used as alternative pharmacies during the Covid-19 pandemic, where there’s ‘always short medication’.
Speaking to IOL, one of the members of the newly formed committee, Elvina Swartz, said that the community had endured the poor service for too long and the complaint box didn’t seem to make any difference.
‘We don’t know whether the complaints and reports put there do reach the intended management,’ she said. ‘So we’re taking it upon ourselves to deal with our concerns. We won’t rest until our people gets dignified service.’’
Wesley Moodley, another committee member, said to IOL: ‘’We’re told to wait until the afternoon, but we have other commitments like all adults. We had scheduled a meeting, but clearly, they don’t take us serious.’’
Meanwhile, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Wellness, Shimoney Regter, said that the Western Cape Government Health and Wellness acknowledged all concerns shared by the Bishop Lavis community.
‘Feedback from our residents is important to us, and we are sorry to hear about their experiences. We can confirm that community members raised their concerns during a community meeting. The facility manager attended the meeting and noted all concerns.’
‘We do not have a medication shortage at our facilities. If a particular medicine is not available at our pharmacy, an alternative is provided. We encourage all residents to honour their medication collection dates at the wellness hubs or the clinic. A resident should only collect their medication at a wellness hub if they have received an appointment. If you require medication and have no appointment, please visit your clinic, not the wellness hub.’’
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