PATIENTS TURNED BACK AS WATER CRISIS HITS GEGE CLINIC

GEGE – It never rains but pours for the kingdom’s health system.

Just when the nation was beginning to heave a sigh of relief, following the news that scarce drugs were now being delivered at the government Central Medical Stores, yet another problem emerged at one particular health facility.

Patients visiting Gege Clinic have, for the past two weeks, been turned back home without getting medical care due to an ongoing water crisis.
The situation is said to have occurred after the clinic’s water pump broke down. Water is pumped from an underground source within the vicinity of the health facility, from where a pump sends it to the clinic’s water tanks. However, ever since the pump broke down, there has not been any immediate solution to the problem.

As a result, the state of affairs at the clinic is now impacting on patients who need treatment, including those who have been visiting the health facility for chronic treatment. They are all being turned away as staffers claim they cannot work in the absence of the precious liquid.

Just yesterday alone, by 11am about 25 patients had been turned back home without receiving any help. While some went back to their respective homesteads, others ended up travelling to Magubheleni Clinic, which is situated about 14.3km away from Gege.
A patient who arrived at the clinic at 8am said she waited a while together with others, before they were later told staff could not attend to them because there was no water at the clinic.

Another one, who preferred anonymity, said he was around the clinic when a very sickly woman in her 60s was also turned away. He said although he was not certain about the nature of the woman’s ailment, he could tell from a cursory glance that she was gravely ill.
“She was very weak and could hardly walk, but she was also told there was no water at the clinic. I later gathered that her relatives decided to take her to Magubheleni,” narrated the patient.

Two others disclosed that they had been turned away from the same clinic on more than one occasion due to the water shortage.
“On Friday last week, I was at the clinic but I ended up turning back. I had hoped the problem would have been solved when I returned today (yesterday), but the situation was the same as last week,” complained one female patient, who said she ended up spending more money on transport as she had to board a bus to Magubheleni as well.

A nurse, who was approached by this reporter also corroborated the version of the frustrated patients. She was asked if it was possible to get treatment at the health facility, and she responded to the contrary.

The female nurse said: “I am sorry we still do not have water, so you will not be able to get any help.”
Shiselweni Regional Health Officer Thoko Ngubeni confirmed the water shortage at Gege Clinic, when reached for comment yesterday. She said the matter was only reported to her office on Friday, so there was nothing that could be done over the weekend.

She indicated that her office had sent health inspectors to the health facility to assess the situation.
“We were not told of the specific nature of the problem. We only got a report that the pump had broken down, but we are doing everything we can to attend to the situation,” Ngubeni said.

Meanwhile, local nurses union SWADNU feels government is not doing enough to care for the sick in the country.
SWADNU is an acronym for the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union.
The union’s President, Bheki Mamba, said the regional health office should have come up with a better plan to avoid a situation whereby patients are made to suffer because of a shortage of water at a health facility.

“An ideal situation is for government to provide a backup plan in the event a problem is encountered with an underground water source. There are tankers which should be used to fill up tanks at the facility,” he suggested, adding, “Water is a necessity in a health facility setting; the nurses have to wash their hands after attending each patient, and there is a lot of equipment that needs to be washed.”
Mamba said he was very disappointed by what has happened at the health facility. He said it was so unfortunate that patients had ended up not getting any help from a health facility, due to water shortage.

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