R89 million Tlhabane Community Health Center operational
The state of the art Tlhabane Community Health Center (CHC) in Rustenburg was officially opened by Health MEC, Dr. Magome Masike on Tuesday, 21 October 2014 to address the main challenge of access to health care.
Built at the cost of R89 million, the newly built 24 hour community health center services the community of Tlhabane in Rustenburg and surrounding villages. It also serves as a referral facility for various clinics within the Rustenburg Municipality for patients to receive treatment for hypertension, diabetes, TB and HIV, Male Medical Circumcision, and reproductive health service among others.
The opening of Tlhabane CHC has brought excitement to the community of Tlhabane. Ms Lillian Mabunda (68) of GG Section in Tlhabane, said she is happy because she would now get medical attention not far from where she stays and in a modern facility.
“This has put a smile on my face. I am happy with the new development. I will no longer have to travel to Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital and spend hours on the queue before I can receive medical attention,” a jubilant Mabunda said.
The department has put a lot of focus and resources into revitalizing Primary Health Care, through the building of clinics, health centers in order to improve access to healthcare.
Speaking during opening of the community health center, MEC Masike said: “This new CHC will help us to achieve the goal of improving the health profile of our nation by rendering basic Primary Health Care services.
“Most importantly, this new CHC will also bring much needed relief to Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital which has seen influx of patients from local communities who would normally be treated at clinics.”
The CHC was earmarked as a 2010 project from its inception, however, the initial contractor ran out of funds, was declared insolvent, sequestrated and blacklisted. This is the main reason why the project stalled because doing away with the initial contractor meant a lot of delays and legal implications that needed to be followed, Masike said.
He said his department is busy implementing the Re-engineering of Primary Health Care (PHC) programme which is a vehicle for the National Health Insurance (NHI).
“It important that we continue to improve the state of our facilities like clinics and hospital and the new ones that we build like Tlhabane CHC should meet the NHI requirement so that we will be ready by the time it is rolled out to all the districts.
“We will continue to do our best to improve the conditions of service of our health professional in order to make it easier for them to do their demanding job.
“I know we are facing challenges of accommodation in some areas but we are continuing to address accommodation needs of our health professionals.
“We have built nurses homes in most of our new facilities but we will ensure that those that are left behind are catered for in the near future,” MEC Masike said.
Enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Provincial Health Spokesperson
Cell: 082 929 9958
Email: tlekgethwane@nwpg.gov.za
