Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba launched a pilot project which‚ it is hoped‚ will eventually see all city clinics open for extended hours to better serve the community.
Times Media reported that the Princess Clinic in Roodepoort has become the first to introduce extended hours and is being used as a pilot project for the rest of the city.
“Health services at the clinic will be extended from the normal eight hours to 15 hours per day – Monday to Friday.”
In the past this clinic‚ like all others across this city‚ was only open from 8am to 4pm‚ Monday to Friday. This is wholly inadequate to deal with the serious health issues our communities face‚ Mashaba said.
The Princess Clinic will now be open from 7am to 10pm‚ Monday to Friday. In addition‚ the clinic will now also be open between 7am and 1:30pm on Saturdays.
Social work services are currently provided once a week at the clinic. A social worker will now be dedicated to the area being serviced by the Princess Clinic from 11am to 7pm‚ Monday to Friday.
“It is my dream that if successful‚ we can then roll this project out at clinics across our city with an end goal of throwing away the keys to clinics. This is the start of a very important road to transforming health care‚ not only in Princess‚ but across our City‚” said Mashaba during the launch.
Over the past eight months‚ the Princess Clinic has gone from seeing 1000 patients per month to over 2300.
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