Cape Town - After just seven months in operation, Chestnut Clinic in Belhar will no longer offer healthcare services to patients.
The Cape Argus reported on the poor level of service provided at the day hospital earlier this month. During my investigation into conditions at the clinic, I was accosted by security officials, locked in an office, and ordered to delete pictures and information from my phone.
Following the publication of the story, Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo paid a surprise visit to Chestnut Clinic on Wednesday. She immediately decided that the clinic would no longer offer healthcare, and relocated this service to the nearby St Vincent Clinic which has been under renovation since October.
The provincial department of health said Chestnut would make way for a brand new state-of-the-art Symphony Way Day Clinic currently under construction in Delft and which is due to open towards the end of this year.
St Vincent Clinic had previously been run by both the provincial government and the City of Cape Town.
The claims of poor service delivery at Chestnut included patients being consulted on confidential personal health issues in a crowded room in close proximity to other patients. When I investigated the claims, chaos broke out with nurses and staff ignoring patients to turn their attention on me, harassing and refusing to allow me to leave the clinic.
One of the security guards, who manhandled me, reeked of alcohol.
The clinic has been operating under the auspices of the provincial government since November.
“The daily services have relocated back to the St Vincent Clinic, in co-operation with the City of Cape Town, and the local Belhar health forum,” Mbombo said.
“Chestnut Clinic currently provides the same range of satellite services, that was rendered in the facility prior to October 31, 2014. The Chestnut Clinic currently provides the community of Belhar with a chronic dispensing unit, and I was impressed with the efficiency of this service in action. It was reassuring to note that the residents I spoke to confirmed that they were satisfied with the arrangement of dispensing of chronic medication as an outreach service closer to their homes.”
But the Belhar health forum voiced its displeasure at the recent changes, alleging that not only did the province fail to communicate the discontinuation of certain services, but that the sudden move resulted in chaotic services at the upgraded St Vincent Clinic.
Sheynain Benjamin, secretary of the forum, said the community forum was only informed of the move two days before the province closed the clinic. She said there was also no support shown by provincial staff during the move, with some medical folders and records only being transferred to St Vincent the following week. “Things went chaotic at St Vincent and some patients didn’t have their folders on time.”
Cape Argus