The most threatening part of an injury might be the ride in a provincial ambulance afterward, according to information that was communicated by Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi.
Is has been revealed that 259 Gauteng Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulances were involved in accidents in 2020 and 2021.
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In a statement about the matter released by DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, Jack Bloom MPL he said, ”According to Mokgethi, R8,3 million was spent on accident repairs, and 40 disciplinary hearings were held concerning these accidents, which resulted in final written warnings for misconduct. I am greatly concerned that more than one in five of Gauteng’s 1 221 EMS ambulances were involved in accidents over a two-year period. Some of these ambulances were written off, and others were off the road for a long time because of slow repairs.
“Currently, 140 ambulances are not operational, which leads to lives being lost due to slow response times. The department says that these ambulances are not in service due to ‘daily downtime that sees vehicles taken for scheduled services, and unplanned (breakdowns) repairs and maintenance’.
According to international standards, Gauteng should have one ambulance for every 10 000 people as well as 10% more for a buffer, which amounts to 1 795 ambulances,” Bloom continued.
“We are therefore short of about 600 ambulances to provide a decent emergency service. Better management is needed to cut down on reckless ambulance driving and to ensure that people needing emergency care are reached as soon as possible,” he concluded.
