Date: 22/08/2005
Source: Belot: Free State Provincial Government
Title: Belot: Free State Emergency Medical Services Summit
Speech by the MEC of Health, Mr ST Belot, at the first provincial Emergency Medical Services Summit, held at the President Hotel in Bloemfontein
Program Director,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is one of the most critical services in the province. The lives of many citizens of this province depend on the service provided by our highly trained emergency care practitioners and custom made vehicles that are constantly called out to emergency scenes where often mind-boggling accidents have occurred. It goes without saying that the service provided by this cadre of personnel has to be of a quality nature. Reliability and consistency in terms of responding to emergency situations is critical. As a province we have taken giant leaps in the terrain of providing EMS in the Free State province.
I have called the EMS fraternity together for two days to look at critical issues of service delivery of EMS in the province. For me it is of the utmost importance to give attention to the perceptions of the community whom we serve. Questions that we need to ask ourselves are those of how we can improve response time of our vehicles, what do we want people to know about EMS, looking at issues of locality, and does our EMS staff really understand what their obligations are? I am sure that the summit will impact on these challenges.
The theme of this year’s conference “Implementing the provincial EMS plan to meet the needs of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy” is very apt for important decisions and deliberations we will all be participating in. I expect robust and active discussion as we will shape the future of service delivery of EMS in the province.
Allow me first to remark on the issue of safety and security of our communities in general. The levels of accidents, knife stabbings and other violent crimes are too high. These violent crimes place an enormous burden on our EMS personnel and vehicles that have to respond to calls to scenes where these incidents have taken place. During the last six months, our EMS personnel responded to 900 698 emergency calls made to the 10177 toll free line across the province.
Programme director, ladies and gentlemen,
Let me take you back a few years ago. EMS has undergone a thoroughgoing transformation since 1994 in this province. This transformation has been part of the attempt to make the service much more efficient in responding to community needs. Before October 1999 local municipalities ran ambulance services on an agency basis for us.
Since October 1999 the service was provincialised and the provincial Department of Health took direct control of the service. After provincialising the service the two services of fire and ambulances were separated. The result of this process was the need to fill several posts that were created as a result of separating the service of ambulances from fire.
We have since 1999 appointed more than 751 EMS personnel; procured more than 129 ambulances, 57 response vehicles and 37 commuter transport vehicles. We have also established 54 emergency medical service stations across the Free State and are in process to develop 20 new stations. Our service is also supported by more than 450 volunteers all trained as basic ambulance assistants.
During the 2003/2004 financial year R4,3 million was spent on 32 ambulances and seven patient commuter condors. R9 million on 15 ambulances and 35 response vehicles during the 2004/2005 financial year.
We have planned to acquire 45 ambulances and five ICU ambulances at R12 million.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have suffered loses to the amount of R7,3 million during the last financial year.
The commuter transport system was an innovation of the department to reduce the burden of having to transport non-emergency patients between institutions. For the last six months of 2005 the commuter services has transported more than 111 074 commuters to and from hospitals in the province.
Programme director,
Other developments as regard ambulances are that our ambulances will now be fitted with tracking devices to trace their movement. This has assisted a great deal in cases of hijackings or thefts but also has assisted in directing ambulances to the nearest scenes where they might be required. Furthermore, speed control mechanisms were installed in our new ambulances and commuter transport vehicles. This was necessary especially in support of our efforts to reduce driver accidents, improve compliance to road safety regulations. Although we have been working hard in terms of buying more vehicles to address shortages we have also suffered the tragedy of losing many vehicles through accidents. Speed is one of the major contributing factors towards accidents. We will now be managing this situation for the long term.
We have also recognised that our ambulances spend a lot of time transporting patients between hospitals. We have instituted the Inter-Hospital Transport system as a way of reducing the burden on ambulances. Thirty vehicles are dedicated to this service of transporting patients between hospitals. Five out of these 30 vehicles were placed at regional hospitals and they were fitted with intensive care equipment. Ambulance personnel in general now focus exclusively on transporting patients from scenes where they were called out directly to hospitals, no longer from one hospital to the other. I do not have to mention that this is a yet another positive strategic step that we have taken to advance this service.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have noted that accidents that ambulances get involved in serves as a backdrop of the efforts we are making to improve this service. One of the critical things we have done is to address this is through the training of ambulance drivers. Our objective was to provide driver training and orientation for all new ambulance personnel. We have achieved this goal.
Training has also been high on our agenda and recently 88 students entered for Advance Emergency Assistant or AEA course at a private service provider and 24 Critical Care Assistants went through intensive training at the same school. I am proud to say that we have achieved a very high pass rate.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is against this background that we are here tonight. On the one hand it is to give recognition on what we’ve achieved since 1999 but also to inspect our goals and objectives with the way in which the service in the province were structured. Amongst others delegates at the summit will review the provincial EMS plan; discuss issues of service delivery of centralisation vs. decentralisation; endeavour to create a working platform for interaction and discussions related to service delivery; be informed regarding the national Department of Health’s EMS perspective; address the state of affairs in EMS, such as ill discipline, lack of accountability and deteriorating patient care; address the lack of facilities, resources and personnel; define to roles of EMS Management; look at the medico legal implications and litigation of professionals and finally we will chart a way forward towards an improved EMS in the province.
I want to challenge the delegates to also think free and open and to come up with creative solutions of issues and challenges. Let us use this opportunity to look again at how we distribute scares resources, apply our minds to creatively and innovatively manage our resources.
In conclusion, I want to recognise the tremendous contribution made to our efforts and vision of a healthy and self-reliant Free State community by each individual member of our EMS team. I realise that you work long hours, under difficult circumstances, are housed and are asked to work in office space which leaves much to be desired for; are required to always perform at your peak even though you finished a shift were you and your team members had to extricate badly injured people from a wreck and had to see the mutilated bodies of men, women and children. I know that you have nightmares of accident scenes, turn sometimes to look for absolution in the bottom a bottle of beer or brandy; are having relationship problems both at home and at work.
I will attend to this and will visit EMS stations in the next few months to talk to personnel. I will request the Department to actively develop a properly constructed Trauma and Debriefing programme especially designed for our EMS personnel. I understand your challenges and need you all to be dedicated and positive. To always remember that you are the only one that will make a difference in that golden hour. We are all health workers and we are here to serve.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health, Free State Provincial Government
22 August 2005
Source: Belot: Free State Provincial Government
Title: Belot: Free State Emergency Medical Services Summit
Speech by the MEC of Health, Mr ST Belot, at the first provincial Emergency Medical Services Summit, held at the President Hotel in Bloemfontein
Program Director,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is one of the most critical services in the province. The lives of many citizens of this province depend on the service provided by our highly trained emergency care practitioners and custom made vehicles that are constantly called out to emergency scenes where often mind-boggling accidents have occurred. It goes without saying that the service provided by this cadre of personnel has to be of a quality nature. Reliability and consistency in terms of responding to emergency situations is critical. As a province we have taken giant leaps in the terrain of providing EMS in the Free State province.
I have called the EMS fraternity together for two days to look at critical issues of service delivery of EMS in the province. For me it is of the utmost importance to give attention to the perceptions of the community whom we serve. Questions that we need to ask ourselves are those of how we can improve response time of our vehicles, what do we want people to know about EMS, looking at issues of locality, and does our EMS staff really understand what their obligations are? I am sure that the summit will impact on these challenges.
The theme of this year’s conference “Implementing the provincial EMS plan to meet the needs of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy” is very apt for important decisions and deliberations we will all be participating in. I expect robust and active discussion as we will shape the future of service delivery of EMS in the province.
Allow me first to remark on the issue of safety and security of our communities in general. The levels of accidents, knife stabbings and other violent crimes are too high. These violent crimes place an enormous burden on our EMS personnel and vehicles that have to respond to calls to scenes where these incidents have taken place. During the last six months, our EMS personnel responded to 900 698 emergency calls made to the 10177 toll free line across the province.
Programme director, ladies and gentlemen,
Let me take you back a few years ago. EMS has undergone a thoroughgoing transformation since 1994 in this province. This transformation has been part of the attempt to make the service much more efficient in responding to community needs. Before October 1999 local municipalities ran ambulance services on an agency basis for us.
Since October 1999 the service was provincialised and the provincial Department of Health took direct control of the service. After provincialising the service the two services of fire and ambulances were separated. The result of this process was the need to fill several posts that were created as a result of separating the service of ambulances from fire.
We have since 1999 appointed more than 751 EMS personnel; procured more than 129 ambulances, 57 response vehicles and 37 commuter transport vehicles. We have also established 54 emergency medical service stations across the Free State and are in process to develop 20 new stations. Our service is also supported by more than 450 volunteers all trained as basic ambulance assistants.
During the 2003/2004 financial year R4,3 million was spent on 32 ambulances and seven patient commuter condors. R9 million on 15 ambulances and 35 response vehicles during the 2004/2005 financial year.
We have planned to acquire 45 ambulances and five ICU ambulances at R12 million.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have suffered loses to the amount of R7,3 million during the last financial year.
The commuter transport system was an innovation of the department to reduce the burden of having to transport non-emergency patients between institutions. For the last six months of 2005 the commuter services has transported more than 111 074 commuters to and from hospitals in the province.
Programme director,
Other developments as regard ambulances are that our ambulances will now be fitted with tracking devices to trace their movement. This has assisted a great deal in cases of hijackings or thefts but also has assisted in directing ambulances to the nearest scenes where they might be required. Furthermore, speed control mechanisms were installed in our new ambulances and commuter transport vehicles. This was necessary especially in support of our efforts to reduce driver accidents, improve compliance to road safety regulations. Although we have been working hard in terms of buying more vehicles to address shortages we have also suffered the tragedy of losing many vehicles through accidents. Speed is one of the major contributing factors towards accidents. We will now be managing this situation for the long term.
We have also recognised that our ambulances spend a lot of time transporting patients between hospitals. We have instituted the Inter-Hospital Transport system as a way of reducing the burden on ambulances. Thirty vehicles are dedicated to this service of transporting patients between hospitals. Five out of these 30 vehicles were placed at regional hospitals and they were fitted with intensive care equipment. Ambulance personnel in general now focus exclusively on transporting patients from scenes where they were called out directly to hospitals, no longer from one hospital to the other. I do not have to mention that this is a yet another positive strategic step that we have taken to advance this service.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have noted that accidents that ambulances get involved in serves as a backdrop of the efforts we are making to improve this service. One of the critical things we have done is to address this is through the training of ambulance drivers. Our objective was to provide driver training and orientation for all new ambulance personnel. We have achieved this goal.
Training has also been high on our agenda and recently 88 students entered for Advance Emergency Assistant or AEA course at a private service provider and 24 Critical Care Assistants went through intensive training at the same school. I am proud to say that we have achieved a very high pass rate.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is against this background that we are here tonight. On the one hand it is to give recognition on what we’ve achieved since 1999 but also to inspect our goals and objectives with the way in which the service in the province were structured. Amongst others delegates at the summit will review the provincial EMS plan; discuss issues of service delivery of centralisation vs. decentralisation; endeavour to create a working platform for interaction and discussions related to service delivery; be informed regarding the national Department of Health’s EMS perspective; address the state of affairs in EMS, such as ill discipline, lack of accountability and deteriorating patient care; address the lack of facilities, resources and personnel; define to roles of EMS Management; look at the medico legal implications and litigation of professionals and finally we will chart a way forward towards an improved EMS in the province.
I want to challenge the delegates to also think free and open and to come up with creative solutions of issues and challenges. Let us use this opportunity to look again at how we distribute scares resources, apply our minds to creatively and innovatively manage our resources.
In conclusion, I want to recognise the tremendous contribution made to our efforts and vision of a healthy and self-reliant Free State community by each individual member of our EMS team. I realise that you work long hours, under difficult circumstances, are housed and are asked to work in office space which leaves much to be desired for; are required to always perform at your peak even though you finished a shift were you and your team members had to extricate badly injured people from a wreck and had to see the mutilated bodies of men, women and children. I know that you have nightmares of accident scenes, turn sometimes to look for absolution in the bottom a bottle of beer or brandy; are having relationship problems both at home and at work.
I will attend to this and will visit EMS stations in the next few months to talk to personnel. I will request the Department to actively develop a properly constructed Trauma and Debriefing programme especially designed for our EMS personnel. I understand your challenges and need you all to be dedicated and positive. To always remember that you are the only one that will make a difference in that golden hour. We are all health workers and we are here to serve.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health, Free State Provincial Government
22 August 2005
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