More ambulances for Ekurhuleni

This claim by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality follows the doubling of the average number of emergency response vehicles on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from 30 to 65, since August, last year.

Now 12 more ambulances will be added to Ekurhuleni’s Disaster and Emergency Management Services fleet, as well as a new disaster bus.

To ensure that these material resources are matched by human resources, the metro has also appointed 176 new fire fighter/emergency care practitioners, who were officially dispatched to their posts by Ekurhuleni mayor Clr Mondli Gungubele, on Friday morning, last week.

Gungubele also announced that the metro will soon be opening the Zonkizizwe and Commercial (Tembisa) Fire Stations, which will be staffed with 56 emergency care practitioners each, from the new appointees.

Capacity will be boosted at the Tsakane, Palm Ridge, Wadeville and Bedfordview and Nigel Fire Stations, which will also be allocated some of the new recruits.

According to the mayor, the number of emergency calls responded to within five minutes of dispatching an ambulance increased from nought per cent to 9.43 per cent in the last six months.

Calls responded to within 15 minutes increased from 78 per cent to 80 per cent, while the remainder of all calls are attended to within less than an hour.

“The number of ambulances on the road 24/7 will now be increased to an average of 74, which means these response times will be reduced even further,” said Gungubele.

“We are also closing the gap in terms of manning levels at our fire stations, and the Fire and Rescue Crew on any shift is going to increase to four members, while the standard is five.”

A total of 170 of the new permanent staff members were appointed from the metro’s 400-strong Fire Brigade Reserve Force, an entry into the field of emergency care for unemployed Fire Fighter 2 or Basic Ambulance course graduates.