Gauteng gears up for festive season with 300 emergency vehicles

Gauteng acting health MEC Jacob Mamabolo said the new fleet would go a long way to ensure that the province responded to emergencies in a suitable manner.

“We are looking at ways to improve our service rendering. Part of this is about replenishing the EMS fleet so that we have sufficient capacity to handle all kinds of emergencies.”

Mamabolo said of the new fleet, 190 ambulances were already in operation.

“These are 90 intermediate life support ambulances and 100 multi-purpose ambulances.

“The department also procured 30 planned patient transport vehicles, that are already providing much needed service to the people of Gauteng,” he said.

He said the rest of the fleet was in various stages of conversion and statutory inspections.

“The department expects them to be ready before the start of the festive season.”

Mamabolo said the festive season was a period which put strain on emergency services in the province, with Gauteng servicing more than 100 000 calls on average, with 65% of those being emergency calls.

The fleet being converted was made up of the following vehicles:

• 60 multi-purpose ambulances
• 48 primary response vehicles
• two 50-seater buses
• four 65-seater buses

Mamabolo said the health department was further refurbishing ambulances and using them as buffer fleet in cases of shortages, rotations and repairs.

“In the past three financial years, the department has refurbished 193 ambulances to the value of R45-million.”