Limpopo: R18 million for EMS fleet
The provincial Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has received a number of vehicles amounting to R18 million as part of the 2020/21 budget allocations from the Department of Health.
The official handover was done at the department’s head office last Thursday and boasted new improved ambulances with neonatal and Covid-19 response capabilities. David Dennison, Deputy Director and Operational Manager for EMS in the province says they play a major role in ensuring that patients get where they need to be safely.
The vehicles procured include 15 ambulances with neonatal capabilities, five Covid-19 response vehicles, 19 planned patient transport vehicles and one medical command vehicle.
“The vehicles will be divided into the various districts and each of them will receive one of the five Covid-19 response vehicles. The medical command vehicle is mainly used in major scenes which are usually multi-vehicle crashes because they have the capabilities to manage a large scene with more patients.”
The new fleet of ambulances come fitted with some new features such as a built-in incubator, fogging machine to make disinfection easier, high-flow oxygen machine and hand wash basin.
As part of the handover, a number of battery operated machines were also introduced to the EMS personnel which will assist in making swifter assistance at accident scenes.
