Eastern Cape ambulance crisis as 60% fleet grounded

For thousands of Eastern Cape residents, an ambulance is more than an emergency vehicle. It is the lifeline between a sick or injured patient and the healthcare they desperately need, reports Graaff-Reinet Advertiser.

That lifeline is becoming increasingly fragile. Across vast rural areas, patients and their families are being left waiting while ambulances stand broken, emergency personnel scramble to find alternative transport, and an already overstretched health system struggles to keep functioning.    

Scale of the crisis revealed

The Eastern Cape province has an estimated population of 7.2 million citizens. National norms and standards require one ambulance for every 10 000 people, meaning the province should have 720 functional ambulances to serve its population.   

In an earlier parliamentary reply, Eastern Cape Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa confirmed that the province had just 192 functional ambulances, down from 244 operational ambulances four years ago.  

However, recently reported figures from the Eastern Cape Department of Health paint an even more alarming picture. 

The department now says that, of a provincial fleet of approximately 350 ambulances, 211 are grounded, leaving just 139 ambulances operational and available for emergency calls.  

This means that 60% of the province’s entire ambulance fleet is currently off the road. 

The department further confirmed that just 44 of the grounded ambulances have been out of service for less than 30 days. The remaining 167 ambulances have been grounded for periods ranging from more than 30 to 120 days.  

These latest figures are significantly worse than those previously supplied and raise serious concerns about the rate at which the situation is deteriorating.    

Pressure on emergency services and root causes

The department has itself acknowledged that the high number of grounded ambulances is placing significant pressure on EMS operations and affecting its ability to maintain optimal ambulance coverage and response times, particularly in areas with high emergency call volumes.  

It has also been confirmed that a transition in the management of the national contract for the maintenance and repair of state vehicles created backlogs in the processing and management of repairs after Afri-Rent took over the contract.  

The failure does not lie with EMS personnel. Paramedics and frontline managers continue to work under extraordinarily difficult conditions, often in vehicles that lack essential equipment or fail to meet occupational health and safety requirements.  

The problem is financial. Medico-legal claims against the Eastern Cape Health Department have left it factually bankrupt, and while measures have been put in place to address these claims, all programmes within the department suffer the fiscal fallout.    

Calls for urgent action

Jane Cowley MPL said that he provincial government must urgently fast-track ambulance repairs, address the systemic maintenance failures, fill critical EMS vacancies, and ensure that vehicles are properly equipped and safe to operate.

The department says that 80 new replacement ambulances are currently being prepared for release. While this is welcome, it does not address the immediate crisis of more than 200 ambulances standing idle, nor the systemic delays that have kept vehicles grounded for months.

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