The DA in Limpopo demands that the Minister of Health, Dr Motsoaledi, urgently intervenes in the collapsed public Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Limpopo. Of greatest concern is the lack of qualified ambulance crews to administer life-saving interventions for patients requiring critical care.
After much grandstanding and fanfare around the handover of dozens of new ambulances to public facilities around the province, very few have qualified crews to operate them. In fact, the DA is advised that there are only four advanced medical practitioners in the province.
Paramedics or Medical Emergency Service personnel are required to complete a Higher Certificate in Emergency Medical Care (the most basic life support requirement – very basic paramedic), a Diploma in Emergency Medical Care or a Bachelors Degree in Emergency Medical Care for Advanced Medical Practitioners.
The majority of crews on ambulances only have the basic Certificate in Emergency Medical Care and are not qualified to administer life-saving interventions like intubation. As a result, critical patients’ lives have been put at risk by inadequately qualified personnel to assist where necessary.
The crisis is made worse by the fact that neither the Thabazimbi nor the Capricorn training facilities in Limpopo are operational. Neither have met the accreditation criteria required by the Department of Higher Education and therefore, potential students for EMS services are forced to travel to alternative provinces for training.
Medivac Helicopters, which should have one Advanced Medical Practitioner on board to fly patients to hospitals, are released with emergency medical personnel, which do not meet requirements as laid out in the Act.
In Limpopo Province, where medical legal claims already run into billions, the situation has reached crisis point. Confidence in MEC Mashego and the Department of Health in Limpopo has all but disappeared.
The DA will take a stand against the abysmal state of health care administered to our poor and vulnerable citizens, and will ensure that every possible action is taken to protect them.