NHLETJENI NURSES QUIT, PATIENTS TURNED BACK

NHLETJENI – Nhletjeni Clinic almost resembles a ‘white elephant’ as the health facility has no nurses to attend to patients.

The two nurses who were stationed at the clinic resigned almost three months apart, leaving the facility with just a nursing assistant.
The unavailability of nurses at the clinic has been met with concerns and confusion from both patients and the community.

Residents in the area now live in fear that their sick relatives might die as patients were being turned away from the local clinic, apparently due to the exodus of the last two remaining nurses.

Information gathered was that the facility has been without a registered nurse for the past seven days. Frustrated residents said the only available staff member at the clinic is a nursing assistant who, unfortunately, is not qualified to treat patients. “The nursing assistant simply comes to open the clinic and loiter around, only to tell you that there is no help since there are no qualified nurses,” said an angry resident.

“I am going to die because the only alternative for me to get medical help is to travel to Hlatsi (Hlatikhulu), which is expensive,” said a depressed elderly woman with a chronic illness.

Nhletjeni is situated about 17km to the east of Hlatikhulu, right at the heart of the trouble-torn KoNtjingila chiefdom.
An air of abandonment has been hovering over the clinic since last Tuesday, when the last nurse to resign left the facility. Another nurse reportedly resigned three months earlier.

Reasons for the health personnel leaving the facility were not immediately available.

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