No ambulance service for Tshwane amid Covid-19 crisis

This as all calls made to Tshwane emergency services’ call centre, via their toll-free 107 number, requesting an ambulance are now transferred to the Gauteng emergency centre’s call centre by operators.

Only the Gauteng emergency management services can render emergency medical service in the Tshwane metro.

The problem was that “Johannesburg’s emergency management services had now dropped from 60 ambulances to 20 ambulances on a shift”, according to DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC Jack Bloom.

“These ambulances are purely focused on emergency calls whereas the 45 provincial ambulances in Johannesburg do both inter-facility transfers and medical emergencies.”

He described the situation in Tshwane as “serious”, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tshwane emergency services spokesperson Charles Mabaso said the move by the Gauteng department meant that they were without an operational ambulance service.

“The current situation is that the Tshwane emergency services will only respond to fire, rescue and humanitarian incidents as and when they are reported.”

“Our ambulances will not be in operation until the licensing matter is resolved or otherwise.”

Mabaso said it was an “unfortunate” that residents were not informed on time about Tshwane’s suspension on the ambulance service due to procedural requirements, which led to delays in informing the public.

He said, “corrective attention was given to the matter”.

Mabaso said the metro could, however, currently use its fire brigade service.

The Fire Brigade Services Act still gave the department room to still perform ambulance services offered through the fire brigade department, subject to Health Act requirements.

“The Tshwane emergency services had already submitted a request for a license to perform ambulance duties through the use of fire brigade vehicles.”

He said he could not see any reason for the Gauteng province to deny this request.

“I am unable to confirm or preempt the outcome of the licensing matter.”

This came to light on Monday after the Gauteng emergency medical services had been fully provincialized.

Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana said his department was pleased to announce that the process to provincialise emergency medical services was now complete.

The provincialisation was finalised for Johannesburg, Tshwane, while the Ekurhuleni Municipality was the last to be provincialised.

“The migration was finalised on in June bringing to conclusion a process that started in 2012 with Sedibeng district municipality.”

She said previously in 2009, the Gauteng Executive Council took a decision to provincialise EMS to improve efficiencies with regards to quality service provision and achieving seamless EMS operations.

The Gauteng health department had over the years sub-contracted municipalities as agents to render emergency medical services.

“That model has proved to be inefficient, and very costly. Gauteng had been the only province where EMS is not yet fully provincialised in the country post-1994 dispensation.

“As part of improving EMS service delivery, the Department has allocated R294-million for the 2020/2021 financial year for the procurement of new ambulances and other categories of emergency vehicles.”

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