The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Gauteng welcomes the addition of seven new mobile clinics to the province’s healthcare system as an important intervention to improve access to primary healthcare services, particularly for communities that are underserved and located far from public health facilities.

The expansion comes at a time when Gauteng continues to experience rapid population growth, placing significant pressure on hospitals and clinics. Mobile clinics can play an important role in bringing essential healthcare services directly to communities, reducing unnecessary travel and helping workers and residents access healthcare closer to where they live.

COSATU Gauteng believes that quality healthcare is a fundamental public service and a basic component of a decent quality of life. For working-class communities, access to healthcare is particularly important because long distances, transport costs and lengthy queues can prevent workers from receiving timely medical attention.

We therefore welcome initiatives that strengthen primary healthcare and take services to communities rather than expecting residents to travel long distances to overcrowded facilities. Gauteng previously expanded its mobile clinic fleet across all five health districts, with these services designed to provide interventions such as HIV and TB testing, diabetes screening, pregnancy testing and child immunisation.

However, COSATU Gauteng emphasises that mobile clinics must complement, and not replace, properly resourced permanent clinics and hospitals. The province continues to face challenges including overcrowding, long queues, infrastructure pressures and shortages of healthcare personnel. The Gauteng State of the Province Address itself identified long queues, manual paperwork, ageing infrastructure and overcrowding as challenges facing public healthcare facilities.

We call on the Gauteng Department of Health to ensure that the new mobile clinics are properly staffed, equipped, maintained and deployed to communities where the need is greatest. Their schedules and locations must also be communicated clearly so that communities and workers can make effective use of these services.

COSATU Gauteng further calls for continued investment in nurses, doctors, community healthcare workers and other frontline healthcare professionals. No healthcare infrastructure programme can succeed without the workers required to operate and sustain it.

We also commend healthcare workers across Gauteng who continue to serve communities under difficult conditions. Their contribution must be recognised through decent working conditions, adequate staffing levels, safe workplaces and the filling of critical vacancies.

The expansion of mobile healthcare services must form part of a broader strategy to strengthen the public healthcare system and advance universal access to quality healthcare. COSATU remains committed to defending public healthcare and ensuring that working-class communities are not denied access to essential services because of poverty, geography or the inability to afford private healthcare.

COSATU Gauteng believes that healthcare must be brought closer to the people, while ensuring that every worker and community member can access quality public healthcare with dignity.

Issued by COSATU Gauteng

Provincial Chairperson: Amos Monyela, 079 493 5002

Provincial Secretary: Louisah Modikwe, 082 297 2659