The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on Limpopo Health MEC, Dieketseng Mashego, to urgently address the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) critical fleet and staff shortages within the province.
A response to a DA parliamentary question has established that there are only about 124 ambulances available per shift for the entire province. The breakdown per district is as follows:
· Capricorn – 20 ambulances
· Waterberg – 25 ambulances
· Sekhukhune – 27 ambulances
· Mopani – 25 ambulances
· Vhembe – 27 ambulances
Limpopo also has 1678 trained EMS staff which comprises of
· 35 Advanced Life support
· 636 Intermediate Life support
· 1002 Basic Life support
According to norms and standards, Limpopo should have one ambulance per 10 000 people which equates to about 640 ambulances, and with the current 124 ambulances per shift the ratio is about one ambulance per 52 000 people. The ideal norms and standards for EMS personnel required should be 5128 in relation to the province’s population.
The DA has previously raised concern about shortfalls in the ambulance services per shift and staff shortages, and emphasised the need for an increased and concerted effort by the department to free more resources to build the ambulance fleet, timeously maintain and repair the existing fleet and increase EMS personnel.
In Limpopo Province, where medical legal claims already run into billions, a failure to capacitate the EMS adequately may result in more claims and compromise the standard of service residents receive. MEC Mashego and her department need to do more!
The DA will continue fighting for improved emergency medical services for all people of Limpopo.