“It is very frustrating that you are there the whole day for nothing else but this one piece of paper” #MoreARVPillsNow

This week we are marching in Thabo Mofutsanyana, Lejweleputswa, and Dr Kenneth Kaunda to demand longer ARV refills. People are frustrated with waiting all day just to collect medicines. For those who are late for appointments, or interrupt their treatment, often when they return to the clinic they are treated badly. This poor treatment and unwelcoming environment is a significant reason for people to disengage from care. Yet a simple solution exists — for people who are collecting ARVs to simply get a longer supply of medication. Here Thembi* tells her story about challenges with frequent trips to the clinic.

It’s been 15 years that Thembi has been on ARVs but she says she  she still can’t get her clinic, Pholomong Clinic in Hennenman in the Free State, to make it easier for her to access her medication.

Thembi says that even though she was decanted from the clinic to an external pick-up point she is still getting a two-month supply of her ARVs. She would like this to be between three and six months. But she says that her bigger complaint is about going to fetch a script from the clinic. 

“Even if you are at the clinic just for a script you have to be there for a long time. The nurses attend to you last because you’re not sick,” she says.

Thembi says that each of these clinic visit start at 7am and she only leaves the facility at around 3pm. It also costs her extra money in taxi fare to travel to the clinic. She says she’d feel better about the time spent waiting and the money spent if these six-monthly visits also included a check-up, but she says this doesn’t take place.

“No one even touches you, not even to take your blood pressure or something. They just give me a folder and tell me to wait for my script.” 

“They only take my bloods once a year and I have never been told what my viral load is. It was only this year for the first time that a nurse told us patients that we should ask for our blood test results and that it is our right as patients to know. So I am very worried that I don’t know about my CD4 count or anything right now; I don’t even know if the medicine is working,” she says. 

Thembi says there is also no practical opportunity to ask questions at these appointments to get a new script.  She explains: “You yourself are tired by the time it is your turn. Then you can see that the nurses are showing bad attitude and they don’t want to do anything extra, so you don’t feel comfortable to ask anything. You just take your script and you go,” she says. 

Thembi would like a more efficient way to get a repeat script without having to spend a whole day in the clinic. “It is very frustrating that you are there the whole day for nothing else but this one piece of paper,” she says. 

* Name changed to protect identity

#MoreARVPillsNow