Download PDFAt Boekenhouthoek (a village in Mpumalanga), there is a problem with regards to the vaccination of the elderly. There are no vaccinating stations in the area and no healthcare workers assigned to help them to register. The elderly currently depend on their family members to help them register for vaccination.
The other challenge is that people are struggling to find transport to the nearest vaccination station and as a result they are dependent on social grant money. This means they have to wait until month end to have money to get themselves to the nearest vaccinating station, which is about 15 kilometres away, at the Kwaggafontein Community Healthcare Centre.
Because of long lines at this facility, some or most of the elderly people are regularly sent back home, some because their vaccinating date has passed and others because the vaccines were finished so they had to be given new dates. Instances like this cause some elders to rather stay at home and not return to be vaccinated because they are constantly sent back home and don’t have the money to keep returning.
If the vaccine stations were nearby to the community of Boekenhouthoek the elderly would go for vaccinating since most of them are willing to be vaccinated.
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