Relocation of Ruyterwacht Community Day Centre

Western Cape Minister of Health, Theuns Botha, officially opened the newly built Ruyterwacht Community Day Centre at its new premises on 20 November 2013. It is a R11 million facility, with an additional health technology budget of R2.5 million.

The clinic is situated in Ruyterwacht, a small area that has a closely knit community and consists of diverse ethnic groups. The Ruyterwacht Community Day Centre serves a population of approximately 7000 people, which is largely aged.

Since 2010 the facility started to focus on women’s health in the Epping Industria as well as Grand West Casino. Outreaches are done on a monthly basis to these facilities. These include Pap smears, family planning, breast examinations for woman as well as men and HIV testing is also done.

The facility functions on an appointment system for clients to reduce the client waiting time. The staff complement is 16 staff members and an HIV Counsellor from an NGO. This facility is disability friendly and it also has more consultation rooms added.

In his address Minister Botha said: “This new facility is well designed with room for future expansion, good patient flow, good security, parking and ventilation with an electronic booking system. It has a large main waiting area, sub-waiting area and enough space to accommodate all that can be attended to by the medical team per day. There is also an open space where children can play or adults can cool off. The facility became operational on 1 November this year.”

In order to promote adherence to the clients in taking their chronic medication, the facility recognises clients by choosing a patient of the month and an overall winner for the year for collecting their medication on time, adhering to appointments, taking medication correctly, on a monthly basis. A picture is taken and placed on a recognition board, which the clients receive positively and it also serves as a motivation for other clients.

Maria Maghrieta Goodier, a senior auxiliary nurse has dedicated her life to helping others in the Ruyterwacht community where she lives and works.

Goodier believes in pro-active nursing. She teaches the patients how to mix the diarrhoea solution and randomly asks questions, because she believes that this can save a child’s life in her community. Patients are ‘recruited’ for pap smears and HIV testing on a daily basis.

She is a modern day Cecilia Makiwane who personifies all the values that the nursing profession stands for. Maria is the winner of the 2013 Cecilia Makiwane Award. The award was named after Cecilia Makiwane, the first registered professional black nurse in South Africa. Several honours have been bestowed upon Cecilia Makiwane and show the regard with which the medical fraternity holds her. Amongst them are: a statue of Makiwane erected in 1977 and a hospital near East London named after her.

Ms Samantha Marais lives in Ruyterwacht and was the patient of the month for August 2013. She keeps to her appointments, arrives on time to collect her medication and takes her medication consistently. Ms Marais mentions that she was very happy and also surprised to receive the award after so long. She has been a client at the facility for 25 years and tries her best to keep to her appointments.

Ms Princess Xotyeni was Patient of the Year winner for 2012. She has been a client at Ruyterwacht CDC since 1995. Receiving the award was very special to her and she says it was definitely a happy day.

Ms Dora May was the winner for September 2013.

Services rendered at Ruyterwacht CDC include the following:

• Adult Curative services
• Chronic Disease Management
• Woundcare
• Womens Health
   o Reproductive Health (Family Planning)
   o Cervical cancer screening
• Management of Infectious Diseases;
   o HCT  ( HIV testing )
   o Wellness Clinic – those clients who are positive HIV but do not qualify for ART in terms of the policy.)
   o STI  ( Sexually transmitted infections)
• Male medical Circumcision
• Health Promotion