BULAWAYO residents have expressed concern over rising cases of ill-treatment of patients at council clinics by staff.
The council owns several clinics that provide primary health care to the Bulawayo community and these include Khami Road Clinic, Dr Shennan Clinic, Pumula South clinic, Princess Margaret Rose and Cowdray Park Clinic, among others.
Pumula South resident Gladys Mahlangu said residents are now uncomfortable to visit council clinics.
“We no longer feel like getting treatment anymore at council clinics because the treatment by nurses is disheartening. The nurses are always yelling at us for no reason as if we get sick on purpose,” Mahlangu told Southern Eye.
“We are not treated like humans in most council clinics. The nurses speak us with no respect and it is not comfortable.”
A senior citizen from Pumula added that elderly patients were not spared from the ill-treatment by council clinic staff.
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“As the elderly, we are treated worse. They yell at us and sometimes they are late to attend to us. We have to sit on the benches for hours,” the senior citizen said.
The same concerns have also been raised in Cowdray Park where council clinic staff are accused of ill treating patients.
Council’s acting director of health services Charles Malaba, however, said he had not received any complaints and urged patients to report such cases as soon as they occur.
“It is not common knowledge to the department that staff are ill-treating patients at council facilities, otherwise we would have addressed that long back.
“People should contact the department as soon as something happens so that we can immediately address a specific incident,” Malaba said.