New generators to curb disruptions at clinics

Friday, November 9, 2012

Pretoria - New generators installed at various primary health care clinics in Orange Farm and Soweto are expected to curb disruptions and allow health practitioners to carry out their work, in the event of power outages.

MEC for Infrastructure Development Qedani Mahlangu visited five clinics on Thursday, and witnessed a demonstration of how the generators will kick in automatically, in case of an outage.

"Today's visit was to give assurance to the health workers working in these clinics that the generators that have been installed are of good quality, and that in case of electricity interruption, they will continue to render services without having to move vaccines from their clinics to the others," said Mahlangu.

The department has set aside R4 million for the installation of 12 stand-by generators at health care centres around Gauteng.

MEC Mahlangu's visit also afforded her the opportunity to interact with health care workers about other maintenance related issues.

Issues that were brought to the MEC's attention include the state of toilets at some of the clinics, roofing, water, and the need for extra space to accommodate patients.

"We will make sure that all the issues are attended to, because when we respond to those issues in terms of infrastructure we improve service delivery, the workers are happy, and the citizens when they come here they're able to get serviced on time and they can go back home without sitting in long queues," said MEC Mahlangu.

Mahlangu has undertaken to work with her counterpart at the Department of Health, MEC Hope Papo, to address those issues that fall outside her department's mandate. - SAnews.gov.za