DURBAN - THE EFF in eThekwini Metro wants the city to consider keeping the city’s clinics open for 24 hours to allow community members to receive assistance especially in emergencies.
The party said this was an important proposal to consider as illness can occur at any time of day or night.
The issue came up as the members of the Executive Committee yesterday discussed a proposal to hand over one of the city’s clinics in the Mayville area to the provincial department of health so it could be open for 24 hours.
Currently, the city said, the clinic in Mayville and others that are under the control of the city are operating until about 5pm because after that time, the city would have to pay the staffers overtime pay.
Councillors claimed that the argument that the clinics cannot be opened for 24 hours because of overtime concerns was disingenuous because the city does pay overtime to staff in other units.
EFF councillor Thabani Miya said: “We cannot say that this is about overtime, the city does make arrangements to pay overtime for the city police. We should consider opening the clinics for 24 hours because illness does not have a time when it can strike, it can strike any time.
“We cannot have a situation where we pay overtime to the city police and yet we are not making the same effort to protect the people’s health,” said Miya.
EThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said handing over the clinic to the provincial department could be the start of the municipality handing over all other clinics to the provincial department.
“The DA has been telling us that we should stop doing things that are not the core function of the municipality, we are looking at that advice,” he said.
He said handing over the clinics to the health department was a complicated process in part because city workers in the clinic were paid slightly more than those in similar positions in the department of health.
THE MERCURY