MBOMBELA – Following the death of a woman who died after four hours of waiting for the arrival of a state ambulance at KaNyamazane Clinic, the Department of Health voiced its concern on the increasing complaints about Emergency Medical Services’ (EMS) ambulances in the province.
The article was published by Mpumalanga News on September 15.
Given the seriousness of the illness, an ambulance was called but it only arrived four hours later, long after the woman
had died.
The department does not approve of the non-response of ambulances because it compromises the lives of the people.
Members of the public are urged to use the above contacts for real emergencies and requested not to abuse the numbers.
“The department believes that no lives should be lost because of a health service that has not assisted. The department values each and every life of the citizens and will not rest until proper services have been provided,” added Malamule.
He extended words of condolences to the bereaved family.
“Our investigations are still under way to get to the bottom of the matter,” he said.
EMERGENCY NUMBERS
*The normal emergency numbers are 112 or 10177. The public can now call the following numbers if there is no response at the above.
*Ehlanzeni District: The call centre on 013-753-2285
*Gert Sibande District: The call centre on 017-632-1894
*Nkangala District: The call centre on 013-246-1319.
“If the people at the above numbers cannot assist, the ambulance managers in the three districts can be contacted.”
*Ehlanzeni: 076-245-8698
*Gert Sibande: 072-407-2581
*Nkangala District: 073-206-2608.
*Malamule added that if the public did not get assistance from the districts, the matter should be brought to the attention of Mr AJ Dreyer, an EMS operations. He can be reached on 082-440-0802.
*The last resort would be to contact Dr MCZ Sibanda who is the director of EMS. He can be reached on 082-3509578.
Also read:Woman dies while waiting for ambulance
