Johannesburg - The City of Joburg, home to about 5 million people, has suspended its last remaining 40 ambulance services, citing lack of vehicle insurance and pharmaceutical supplies.
The Emergency Management Services (EMS) staff were told to stop driving the vehicles from Friday.
The city was running its own ambulance service with a fleet of 100 vehicles until 2018, when it was informed that the Gauteng province would take over the service, which it had done for many years. This reduced the number of ambulances operated by the city to 40, which have now been withdrawn.
The provincial ambulances are stretched between Joburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, but, according to Gauteng Health Department spokesperson Kwara Kekana, they are coping.
The municipalities are required to renew their licences annually and so far, according to the DA’s Gauteng spokespeson on health, Jack Bloom, only Tshwane had done so.
“These vehicles are lying idle as emergency response times plummet. I’m increasingly getting complaints from desperate people who have called an ambulance that does not arrive in good time. How can it be that we have standing ambulances in two Gauteng cities as Covid19 infections increase alarmingly?” he asked.
He added that the provincial government should halt its provincialisation of ambulances and ensure that all available ambulances and personnel were used to save lives in medical emergencies.
The DA’s former Public health MMC Michael Sun said: “The decision to withdraw the last 40 ambulances was taken alongside plans by the Gauteng Department of Health, despite the department’s poor record of ambulance operations – and despite the fact that the city does have the requisite resources and vehicles to provide a city-owned and managed ambulance service to its residents.
“Most Joburg residents are unable to afford private medical care or ambulance services, and their only hope in an emergency situation is for the city to dispatch an ambulance that should arrive within 15 minutes,” he said.
The City of Joburg did not reply to a request for comment by the time of publication.
The Star