A member of the www.mobserver.co.za news team was in that unfortunate position last week after he was called to the scene where a child fell into a pool, not to take photos and report on the tragedy, but in a desperate attempt to help reach someone for medical assistance.

Efforts to get hold of an ambulance were futile. A resident with advanced paramedic training who lived a few blocks from the scene was eventually the one to render assistance.

It was later learned that an ambulance en route to the scene, was involved in a bumper bash at a traffic light, causing the delay. Nevertheless, the incident highlighted previously voiced concerns about the increasing delays in ambulance response times.

Www.mobserver.co.za managed to speak to several trusted sources within the industry. None of them can be named but the information they provided makes it clear that there is a crisis looming, one the general public might not be aware of.

According to information, there are currently three private ambulance services of which one is missing in action whilst the other two are operating with an ambulance each and limited staff.

Several factors, like paramedics who are fearful of contracting Covid-19 opting to go on leave, the financial impact of the hard lockdown and technical issues, like the time it takes to sterilise ambulances and equipment between call-outs, are thought to be contributing to the crisis.

“During the hard lockdown things ground to a halt. There was absolutely nothing happening so paramedics were sitting around. Some ambulance services closed their doors for a couple of weeks. The financial impact on ambulance services during this time was severe,” a source said.

Also read: ‘People are dying’ – No Ambulance

As lockdown moved to Level 3 and the alcohol ban was lifted, emergency call-outs started to increase. Sources all said that despite the increase in emergencies, emergency services are still working with skeleton staff and limited resources.

Sources were also unanimous in saying that provincial ambulance response times are getting longer and longer. The need for state healthcare is increasing as residents are being retrenched and losing their medical aid benefits. Private ambulance services simply cannot buffer the financial impact of transporting private patients for free anymore.

Horror stories of abused women with broken ribs waiting for a provincial ambulance for five hours, or injured but stable patients transported from accident scenes to hospital in private cars, are surfacing more and more.

“There were about five accidents in the space of two hours last week, paramedics were busy tending one scene when they were called to another. The second call just had to wait even though there were critically injured patients. It was chaos,” a source said.

To sterilise an ambulance that transported a Covid-19 patient can take up to an hour before it can go out to the next call.

Adding to the problem is the public, who request ambulances for everything only to change their minds and refuse transport after ambulances arrive, which chips away at already dwindling resources.

The DA Mpumalanga spokesperson on health, Jane Sithole, said in a 15 June press release that the province only has 33 operational ambulances to serve a population of almost 4 million.

Sithole further said that in April 2019 the province had 178 operational ambulances and questioned what happened to the more than 100 vehicles since then.

If Mpumalanga only has 33 provincial ambulances, Middelburg is lucky to have four of them. Information from a source has it that two provincial ambulances are predominantly used to do hospital transfers, whilst two are available for call outs. A fifth ambulance is currently on loan to Belfast.

Dumisani Malamule, spokesperson for the Provincial Department of Health, said it is untrue that Mpumalanga only has 33 ambulances that are operational. He could, however, not give the exact amount of ambulances in the province before deadline.