Health Dept declares readiness for festive season
MEC for Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba, says the provincial health emergency and rescue services will work together with the Department of Transport and Community Safety to render emergency services on all major routes in the province throughout the festive season.
LIMPOPO – “As from today (Monday, 10 December) we are deploying a further 24 ambulances, 10 rescue units and 13 response vehicles all of which will be placed strategically next to all major routes. All these ambulances will be staffed by highly skilled advance life support paramedics, Intermediate Life Support staff and personnel trained specifically in rescue operations. All units will be fully operational by 14 December and the stand-by operation will run until 13 January 2019.”
Seven of these units will be deployed along the N1, four along the R71 and three along the R37, said Dr Ramathuba.
“All ambulances will be placed at standby points and will receive back-up from EMS stations which are fully equipped with a further 192 ambulances ready to be deployed to any major incidents. In addition to this, we have a fully equipped disaster bus that we will send to major incidents. We will also provide a daylight aero-medical (chopper) service that is able to provide assistance at road incidents, in transporting critical injured patients to an appropriate health facility.”
She added that an additional 50 EMS vehicles, consisting of 27 ambulances and 23 planned patient transport vehicles have been procured which will join the operational teams as in when they are delivered.
In case of emergency dial 10177 or 112
Dr Ramathuba further calls on the Limpopo community to contact the department at 10177 or 112 in case of emergency, whereby the call will automatically be relayed to the nearest EMS call centre. “All the call centres are in constant contact with the operational units and will dispatch the closest resource to ensure prompt response to the scene or incident.”
“All hospital casualty and trauma centres will be on standby and adequately equipped to handle any incident that might require their attention. Our Forensic Pathology Services vehicles will also be ready to assist whenever there will be fatalities.”
Motorists are advised to go for a FREE health check-up ahead of their journey
“We call on motorists to visit any of our facilities for a free health check-up ahead of long journeys. One of the manifestations of both sugar diabetes and hypertension for instance is blurred vision which can be fatal for drivers. We also call on drivers and assistant drivers especially for long distance public transport to rest adequately in order to avoid fatigue which is classified as one of the greatest killers on our roads,” Dr Ramathuba concluded.
