By Flata Kavinga
The Municipality of Redcliff says it will investigate allegations of unprofessional conduct by some municipal clinic staff following concerns raised by councillors that patients may be avoiding local clinics because of the alleged behaviour.
The issue was raised during a full council meeting by Cllr Josephine Mutamangira, who said complaints about the conduct of some clinic employees had persisted and questioned what disciplinary measures, if any, had been taken by the local authority.
“We’d like to know what measures are being taken by council because it’s not the first time this has happened; it’s been ongoing,” Mutamangira said.
“We have never heard of any disciplinary hearing or action. What action is being taken by council to ensure that patients do not shun our clinics because the council employees there are very rude and they are abusing some residents? We want to know what action council is taking, and what action it has already taken so that we can go back and give feedback.”
Responding to journalists after the meeting, Director of Housing and Community Services Admire Chigayo said the municipality was aware of the allegations but had not yet received formal reports to support them.
“We will try to resolve that. Unfortunately, there are still some allegations. We haven’t received actual reports about our clinic staff being rude to our stakeholders,” Chigayo said.
He said the municipality would investigate the matter and take appropriate action if any staff members were found to have acted improperly.
“We’ll try to investigate, and if there are some nurses who might be found wanting, we’ll definitely deal with them,” he said.
