Clinics growing from strength to strength

Organisation marks 10 years in the Eastern Cape

“IT’S hard to believe that it has been 10 years since the first AHF-supported clinic opened in Middledrift in 2007.”

These are the words of Aids Healthcare Foundation South Africa Country Programme director Hilary Thulare.

She was referring to the global organisation celebrating a decade of operating in the Eastern Cape.

AHF partnered with the Department of Health and opened the Middledrift Clinic in 2007.

And to date, AHF is assisting 55 clinics in the province to provide better primary healthcare services.

This is the bulk of the organisation’s healthcare programmes in the country with 20 and 10 clinics supported in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng respectively.

“In the 10 years on the ground , AHF has focused on providing as much support to rural areas as possible,” Thulare said.

And when patients, who rely on public clinics and hospitals make it to the government facilities, they often complain about ill-treatment from nurses with bad attitudes.

But if AHF has things its way, that will be a thing of the past in the 55 clinics that the organisation is involved in.

The global organisation continuously trains and motivates the nursing staff.

“Staff support at the various clinics is a major focus for AHF. Staff retention remains an ongoing issue in rural areas with many skilled healthcare workers choosing to move to the cities or to other provinces,” Thulare said.