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On 17 January 2019, MMC for Health and Social Development in the City of Joburg, Councillor Mpho Phalatse, tabled a report to the Mayoral Committee meeting on the challenges that the 80 Albert Street clinic is facing due to serious environmental health issues in and around the clinic.
A unanimous decision was taken to temporarily close down the clinic and relocate services to the nearest health facilities to ensure that primary healthcare services continue. The decision comes following an assessment by the city’s environmental health inspectors, who declared the building where 80 Albert Street clinic is housed, a bad building.
The environmental health practitioners have been reporting about the untenable environmental health hazards that have been developing over time in and around the health facility. The current conditions in the clinic are clearly in contravention of the Occupational Health and Safety as well as the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), as well as the Labour Relations Act that require our health workers to work in a healthy and conducive environment. The environment also does not comply with the Environmental Health legislation, bylaws and the policy guidelines.
The 80 Albert clinic is situated on the first floor in the Heritage Building that is surrounded by an informal settlement and the car repairs’ small businesses. There are a number of unknown occupants in the building. Some of the occupants allegedly belonged to an NGO that worked with the Provincial Social Development.
Illegal squatters who have moved into the building continue to compromise the facility which was recently repaired.
Water is seeping through the walls into the health facility as squatters continue to partition the top floors of the building and illegally connect to the clinic water and electricity systems.
As the political head of the Health Department, Phalatse visited the clinic this week to inform the staff of the decision.
During the site visit on Monday, 21 January 2019, Cllr Phalatse was shocked at the rapid decline of the building. She informed staff at the clinic that the temporary closure of the facility will be done properly to ensure that the service rendered to patients is not compromised, especially those who are on chronic medication.
