New ambulances to boost emergency medical service delivery
In response to the increasing demand for emergency medical vehicles in the province, The North-West Department of health deemed it fit to increase the fleet with yet another 50.
The announcement and distribution was made on Friday at the NW Emergency Medical Rescue Service (EMRS) College in Orkney. The distribution was officiated by the North-West MEC for Health, Dr. Magome Masike.
“I am distributing these vehicles to our various facilities to go and immediately boost health care service delivery in our service points in the districts. There are 20 ambulances and 30 patient transporters made up of 20 x 14 seaters and 10 x 22 seater vehicles. This makes it a total of 50 red fleet vehicles we are dispatching to service our people”, said MEC Masike.
This advancement comes just a few days after 33 Emergency Care Technicians graduated at the Department’s EMRS College.
“Just on the 6th of this month I addressed graduates in this EMRS College about the need to be responsible around these scarce resources. I warned them about the fact that a lot of complaints we receive lately are related to Emergency Medical services, mainly about the ambulances, that they arrive late, they are misused and so on,” said the MEC.
Masike also mentioned that there are even suspicions among stakeholders that some of the cases of medical negligence are associated with negligent ambulance drivers.
“We are concerned that our ambulances spent more time in garages being serviced and repaired when they are supposed to be attending to emergencies on the road. Yes, we believe that the poor road infrastructure in the province particularly in rural areas is a mayor contributing fact. We also believe that misuse of these vehicles does contribute. It is therefore the responsibility for all of us to monitor and report misuse of these vehicles”, We can only do better for our people if we work together! Together we are moving Bokone Bophirima Province forward,” He concluded.
The emergency medical service vehicles were distributed equitable to the four districts of the province.
Enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Provincial Health spokesperson
Cell: 082 929 9958
E-mail: tlekgethwane@nwpg.gov.za
