NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 637
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 23 November 2012
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 37)
Mr M J R de Villiers (DA-WC) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Why does the Phillipstown Clinic not have a room for emergency cases;
(2) whether his department has any plans in place to address this
problem; if not, why not; if so, what plans;
(3) whether the nurses at the clinic are fully (a) equipped and (b)
qualified to attend to (i) a heart attack, (ii) unexpected childbirth
and (iii) haemorrhaging; if not, (aa) why not and (bb) what is the
proposed plan to address this situation; if so, what are the relevant
details?
CW848E
REPLY:
(1) The Phillipstown clinic, with a 24-hour on call service after normal
clinic hours, is a relatively new facility that was opened in 2009.
It does have 3 consulting rooms. None of the present clinics has a
dedicated emergency room. The consulting room is utilized to see
emergency cases.
(2) As nurses are trained to deal with emergencies they offer emergency
medical care and consult telephonically with the doctor on call at the
De Aar Hospital. Patients that need referral are referred to De Aar
Hospital.
(3) (a)-(b) The clinic staff have the necessary qualifications and
experience to deal with emergencies. They can also consult
telephonically with the doctor doing sessions in Philipstown as
well as with the doctors at De Aar Hospital. An emergency
vehicle is also available to transfer patients to De Aar if the
professional nurse needs to refer the patient.
The clinic does have the necessary equipment to attend to
emergencies. It is a relatively new clinic that received all the
necessary equipment.
Deliveries are done at the facility but complicated cases are
referred to De Aar Hospital.
END.