Frustration at 2-month power outage at care centre

FRUSTRATED patients have been queueing at the Lillian Ngoyi Community Health Care Centre, which has been without reliable electricity supply for two months, in the hope that they will eventually be attended to.

During this time the facility, next to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, has been

relying on a faulty generator for energy supply.

The generator is subject to daily maintenance because of a persistent leakage. This week the generator has tripped daily, and maintenance has restored power intermittently for an hour or two.

When The Star arrived, the situation was the same as it has been since the start of the electricity problem. Frustrated patients have been queuing regardless of the situation.

Jane Mabaso, 69, who recently relocated to Turffontein after being a resident of Soweto for many years, said the situation was giving her sleepless nights as she is running out of her medication.

“I was here yesterday and am here again. I was told that there is no electricity and I must come back today. But today there’s still no electricity. I have run out of medication and don’t know what else to do as I was turned away when I tried to go to the Rand Clinic near my home. I am using public transport, which costs.”

Speaking on his way to City Power, Scebiso Masondo from the councillor’s office in ward 24, told The Star he was alerted yesterday morning about the situation by an affected patient.

“From what we’ve heard, City Power wasn’t alerted about the matter as they don’t have a reference number. I suspect that maybe they didn’t report this issue and relied on the generator, which is said to be leaking,” the community leader said.

A senior employee, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job, said there was nothing they could do until the issue of electricity was resolved and the generator they have been using was fixed.

“It is unfortunate that we can’t work without electricity. We need machinery to examine and prescribe the correct medication for our patients. It pains us to have to turn the patients away, but there is little we can do until the issue has been resolved,“he said.

The employee added that they referred patients to the newest healthcare centres and, in the case of those who are critical, try to take them to the nearest health-care centre using this clinic’s transport. “However, some patients don’t understand our dilemma and swear at us in frustration,” he said.

The mother of a small boy, Pamela Madikizela, said she had been forced to use the little money she had to take a taxi to the Chiawelo Clinic, a few kilometres away. “Today, I was told a taxi would take us to Chiawelo, but after waiting a long time again I’ve used my own money to seek help elsewhere.”

The Star sent a media enquiry to City Power about the matter. No comment had been received by time of publication.