On Thursday, 31 August 2023, the North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Health and Social Development led by Hon Gavin Edwards conducted oversight visits at Manthe Community Health Care Center and Pudumoe Community Health Care Center in the Taung Local Municipality in the Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District.

The Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. Edwards stated that the programme is aimed at strengthening oversight, public participation, accountability and transparency in government.

Manthe Community Health Care Centre
Ms. Mosetsanagape Mongale, who is a professional nurse at the health center stated that the Health Centre is operating under severe constraints with less space.

“Due to space constraints, the screening area is located in the patients waiting area demarcated by simple linen partition which compromises patient’s confidentiality and privacy,” said Ms. Mongale.

Ms. Mongale informed the committee that besides the space challenge, they are also faced with water crisis leading to the facility only attending to emergency cases and sending all admissions to Taung Hospital. Maternity cases are also referred to Taung Hospital due to water crisis.

“We are also understaffed at the health centre, which puts excessive pressure on the current personnel” said Ms. Mongale. Due to the challenges faced by the health centre, they have allocated different weekdays for different ailments like chronic diseases unless there is an emergency.

The health center is supposed to assist with baby deliveries, but they refer patients to Taung Hospital because the hospital does not have running water and can only assist during emergencies.
“Water is very critical in the operation of the health center and it also reduces chances of infections as the nurses needs to wash hands after attending to each and every patient” said Ms. Mongale.

Pudimoe Health Care Centre
The committee was welcomed by the Facility Manager, Ms. Victoria Tlharesengwe. She told the committee that the Health Care Centre is operating 365 days despite daily challenges.

“We have space issues were we ended up dividing our consultation rooms into two using small mobile partitioned curtains. The privacy of the patients is compromised as the discussions between the sister and the patient can be heard by the person sitting in the other makeshift consultation room. Those consultation rooms are very narrow making patient observation and treatment a serious challenge” said Ms. Tlharesengwe.

Ms. Tlharesengwe further told the committee that the administration staff does not have office space. Three data capturers are working from the facility manager’s office while the facility manager is working from the maternity room.

“When there is water outage, we are forced to go and get water from the Jojo tank outside even at night” said Ms. Tlharesengwe.
It is difficult for the facility manager to get at least 80% of her administrative tasks as she is often forced to relief and assist nurses when required.

“We have allocated one of the nurses to work full time with the center doctor in order to assist with translation which has created a shortage of nurses” said Ms. Tlharesengwe.
The chairperson of the acknowledged challenges at the two health centres and suggested a meeting with the Department of Health to check how they are going to mitigate the water crisis.

The committee will engage with the Department of Health to check if there are any future plans of building proper health care facilities which meets the norms and standards of health care facilities, adequately accommodating staff and community.