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Spotlight reports that fearing for their safety, nurses at Booysens Park Clinic in Nelson Mandela Bay now work behind locked gates.
Patients are left to wait for hours outside after it suspended indoor queues because of an armed robbery. That clinic is one of several health facilities forced to operate in this manner as a result of armed gangs targeting healthcare workers and patients in Nelson Mandela Bay, which comprises the City of Port Elizabeth and the smaller towns of Uitenhage, Despatch and Colchester. People at Despatch Clinic were robbed for the fifth time in 12 months in August. Earlier this month, Motherwell NU8 Clinic was the target when staff and patients were robbed and the security guard was accosted and robbed. Security guards at Motherwell Community Health Centre were also not spared by criminal gangs when they were robbed of their belongings in July. Joe Slovo Clinic was robbed for the third time this year in September. Mkhululi Ndamase, spokesperson for Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa, told Spotlight various security measures have been taken to ensure the safety of staff and patients, which have saved the workers from potential harm and trauma. "This is why the department has ensured that at each of our almost 1,000 facilities, there are security guards. The department has also installed CCTV cameras, beams, panic buttons that are linked to 24-hour armed response, appropriate fencing, and gates, among other security measures," he said. Ndamase told Spotlight that 119 break-ins and robberies at health facilities across the province caused about R1.5 million in damages in 2023/24 and the current financial year so far. He said that during the 2023/24 financial year, the provincial health department spent over R700 million on security contracts awarded to different companies.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luvuyo Mehlwana at News24 (trial registration required)
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