The North West Provincial Legislature Portfolio Committee on Health and Social Development led by Hon Gavin Edwards conducted oversight visits at Moruleng Clinic and Kitso ke Lesedi Social Development Programme.

This was during the oversight week programme that was held on the 10 – 13 October 2023 at various municipalities under the Bojanala district. The program is aimed at strengthening oversight and public participation and to promote accountability and transparency in government.

Amongst some of the challenges the committee was met with at Moruleng Clinic was that the clinic has a daily consumption of about 1800 patients whilst they are understaffed and have lack of space available to accommodate every patient.

The clinic is located under the Bakgatla ba Kgafela tribal land where at first they were given a hall to utilise as a clinic, until they were moved to a temporary structure donated by Aurum due to the poor state and condition of the building at the hall. Aurum Institute focuses on the technical assistance and health systems that strengthens and direct service delivery projects in support of the Department of Health and related communities. The clinic however still uses the hall as a waiting area for patients when there is an overflow at the temporary structure.
Doctors normally visit twice a week, which is on Mondays and Wednesdays.

The Operational Manager, Professional Nurse Moira Johanna Molope stated that patients are forced to wait for an ambulance for a long period of about 6hrs and that the clinic does not have any means of communication due to poor network.

“We wait more than 6 hours on ambulances, and struggle with connectivity at the clinic, there is no internet, we only use the Community Wi-Fi which is not always reliable, we use our cell phones and there is no telephone at the clinic,” said Ms Molope
The clinic uses the manual way of recording files and not captured on the system.

On the other hand the committee was happy to see that operations are running well at Kitso ke Lesedi Social Development Centre. The organisation renders services on Gender Based Violence and Femicide. Amonsgt some of the challenges mentioned was that the centre is placed at the same location of the Police Station which restricts them from expanding, the Department of Social Development fails to pay on time and that there is a need for transport to move victims of trauma to nearby hospitals or clinic.

The committee recommended full comprehensive reports on both the clinic and centre, which will be referred to the relevant department to get feedback on challenges presented before the committee during the oversight visits.