Community ails as mobile clinic fails to pitch at venues

Villagers around Reeston near East London say their weekly mobile clinic has not visited them for nearly two months.

But provincial health spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha said the mobile clinic had been servicing Reeston, Thembalethu, Khayalethu and Dice regularly until it was involved in an accident on February 11.

The villagers say they were being turned away from clinics in other areas and told to wait for the mobile clinic that is meant to service them.

Mthetho Mnqingwana, 63, lives in Dice and depends on the mobile clinic’s weekly stops for his high blood pressure medication.

He said he had been without treatment since the middle of the month because he did not have money to travel to other clinics.

He said the mobile clinic, which came to his neighbourhood every Monday and Wednesday, was last seen during the first week of January.

Mnqingwana said residents were told that a lack of drivers was the reason behind the mobile clinic’s failure to pitch.

“I don’t have meds and I don’t have money. I can feel my body is beginning to deteriorate without medication. I’ll have to resort to borrowing money because I don’t want to die,” Mnqingwana said.

Thelma Govuza, who gets diabetes and high blood pressure medication from the mobile clinic, said clinics in neighbouring areas often chased them away. “We’ve been asking for years now [to have a clinic built for us] but our requests fall on deaf ears. The Dice area has grown a lot,” she said

Zukile Cengce, a community leader in Thembalethu, said no mobile clinic had been to their area this year. He said a lot of people suffered when the mobile clinic failed to pitch.

Sicwetsha said the mobile clinic had been involved in an accident on 11 February and was in for repairs.

“As a temporary mitigating measure until the mobile clinic is repaired, services will be rendered at the Dice community hall every Friday.”

DA councillor Bill Gould said many Reeston residents turned to him for assistance and it was “unacceptable that people still had to suffer for basic services”.

“A community this big needs its own full-time facility because there are many people with chronic diseases who need regular medial attention,” he added.