KANYAMAZANE – The family of a patient who died at KaNyamazane Clinic after hours of waiting for the arrival of a state ambulance, needs answers about the ambulances in the province.
According to the deceased’s sister, Ms Siphiwe Ngonyama, they arrived with the ill Mumsy at the clinic at 17:00 and were ordered to wait for an ambulance to take her, together with other patients, to Rob Ferreira Hospital.
“We waited for hours for the ambulance which only arrived around 21:00. Some of the patients, whom we were waiting with, even opted to leave to find other means of transport to hospital. My sister kept asking whether the ambulance had arrived. When we asked the clinic management about the delay, we were told that ambulances were always late to respond to emergencies at the clinic. Does this mean that the province only has one ambulance? To make matters worse, the nurses refused to administer a drip to the ill woman because they said she had already been referred to hospital. She was declared dead at the clinic,” she said.
Ngonyama expressed her family’s disappointment with the service at the clinic. “We were really hurt by what had happened. My sister was fine when we left home. Her condition deteriorated while waiting for the ambulance and she died,” she sobbed.
A witness who was at the clinic at the time, Ms Thembi Dlamini, said she and nurses at the clinic even tried to call the ambulance from their cellphones, only to find that the line was engaged. “The nurses did their level best.
The problem is always with emergency services, they take time to arrive, not only at KaNyamazane but at other clinics as well.”
Dlamini added that both the day- and night-shift nurses tried their best to summon
an ambulance.
Mpumalanga News also learnt that, when the ambulance finally arrived, the driver made a U-turn and left upon being told that the patient had died.
“The ambulance staff told us they did not ferry corpses, and we waited until the arrival of the hearse to transport the body to the mortuary,” added another source.
Also read: Residents angry with paramedics
Mr Dumsani Malamule, spokesperson for the Department of Health, said the province’s emergency services have 98 operational ambulances at any given time. He added that on the day in question, Ehlanzeni was operating 20 ambulances of which some were on call-outs.
“The department is however investigating the matter to check what might have caused the delay in response to a patient in need. The necessary steps will then be taken to correct this,” he said.
Also read:Ambulances handed over to spead service delivery
Also read State ambulance involved in a horrific accident
