Lock-out at clinic delays ARVs

Scores of patients waiting to collect their anti-retroviral medication and get help at the Silvertown Clinic were locked out of the facility on Tuesday morning when only one nurse arrived for work.

Treatment Action Campaign deputy chair Thembisile Nogampula said the nurse on duty had locked the doors.

“We are very worried about this because patients are trying to collect their anti-retroviral medication,” he said.

“She said she had no choice but to lock patients out as she was the only nurse in the clinic, with the only other person present working in the pharmacy,” he said.

“She said she couldn’t allow patients to ‘roam freely’ in the clinic without anybody else there.”

Nogampula said the organisation’s secretary, Andile Yawa, had to be called in.

He said a representative of the department of health’s district office arrived at the clinic just before 11am.

“I told the patients outside to remain and not to go away,” he said.

Health spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha said the clinic was operational again just before 1pm on Tuesday.

“A manager was sent to the clinic to address the unacceptable closure,” he said.

“The nurses who were absent were called back to report for duty,” he said.

The Treatment Action Campaign vowed last year to continue protest action, including at Silvertown, to protest against long queues, staff shortages and the “unco-operative attitude of management”.