The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health has urged patients to seek help timeously after a 41-year-old man collapsed while waiting in a queue for assistance at the KwaMashu Community Health Centre on Monday.
“The department would like to urge health-care users and/or their relatives to understand the importance of presenting during early stages of illness to health facilities, in order to afford doctors and nurses the opportunity to make timeous interventions.
“This will help to avoid serious complications which may lead to fatalities,” said the Department of Health.
The department stated that a report from the facility management said concerned patients who saw a man lying on the floor alerted the security guards, who summoned nurses for help.
“Upon examination by doctors, the patient was found to have no vital signs and declared dead.
The patient’s file was retrieved and his relatives were duly informed,” stated the department.
The department conveyed condolences to the family and relatives of the man and said it would be in “constant contact with the family to provide the necessary support”.
Witness Spha Johnson said the patient had been waiting to be assisted by the nurses.
“The man arrived at 5am and asked for help but they told him to wait in the queue like other people.
“Some women who were also in the queue called the nurses to come and assist the man but they said they only start working at 7am. So he waited there until he died,” said Johnson.
He said people have been complaining for years over poor treatment at the clinic.
“A few weeks ago, a group of men barged into the clinic, complaining that in the men’s section of the clinic, they are not treated well. So this shows that clinic management is negligent,” he added.
Ward councillor Mafi Zondi said the clinic was short staffed and that was why patients waited for long hours in queues.
“When I visit the clinic, I usually find that patients sit for over five hours until they get help, and it is not that the nurses are not working, but they are short staffed so the process is very slow,” said Zondi.
“The clinic is also usually overcrowded because people come from other townships, leaving clinics nearby to them. They come to Poly Clinic, only to find that there are few nurses and doctors here. I have suggested to the management that they should hire more staff,” she added.
KZN Health Department head Dr Sandile Tshabalala said the clinic sees a large number of patients.
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“Among the things we have already started to do is to make sure that we pre pull some of the files of the patients that we know will be coming.
That will reduce their waiting time in the queues,” said Tshabalala.
He added that they encourage patients to use other clinics nearby to reduce long queues at the clinic.
A video was shared on social media showing angry patients shouting at the staff members after the man died at the clinic. People were complaining that they are not attended to on time and that this is not the first time such an incident has happened.
The Mercury