Residents from Eurekaville in Noupoort, in the Northern Cape, are crossing the border into the Eastern Cape to receive medical care, following the absence of the resident doctor at the local clinic for over a month already.
The situation prompted angry patients to protest outside the clinic today and call for an urgent intervention by the Northern Cape Health Department. See pics here and here.
Patients are tired of waiting in vain to see the doctor for a proper diagnosis and treatment. The doctor, who used to visit the clinic throughout the week, has simply stopped doing her sessions and there is no explanation for her continued absence.
Patients cannot go to the Noupoort hospital because they get turned away without a doctor’s referral letter. Despite the majority of residents of Noupoort being unemployed, they are forced to use the little money they have to seek medical care in the closest town, which happens to be Middelburg, in a neighbouring province.
The situation is an embarrassment to the Northern Cape Health Department and is placing a burden on the already constrained Eastern Cape’s budget for healthcare.
DA Constituency Head of Bo-Karoo, Fawzia Rhoda, has submitted a letter to Health MEC Maruping Lekwene and Premier Zamani Saul, asking for an urgent investigation into the doctor’s absence, as well as for adequate health services to resume at Eurekaville Clinic.
At the very least, the sick people of the Northern Cape deserve access to quality medical care in their own province.