The DA welcomes a move by the Northern Cape Department of Health to capacitate its distressed Emergency Medical Services unit with additional personnel. This comes after the department today placed an advertisement to fill 34 vacant Emergency Care Officer posts in the Pixley Ka Seme district.

The DA yesterday highlighted the decline in performance by the department’s EMS, which has been a experiencing a breakdown in services.

The appointment of additional Emergency Care Officers will do much to increase two-person ambulance crews and in turn transform the face of our emergency services. This includes ensuring that patients are treated in accordance with Basic Life Support protocols, that good hygiene and cleanliness standards in ambulances are maintained, and that ambulances are always stocked with necessary surgical supplies and medical gases.

The DA calls on the department to move with haste in filing vacant EMS related positions in other districts as well.

We further hope that the department will do all in its power to not only retain these staff once they have been appointed but also to ensure capacity building programmes for the Emergency Care Officers, so that they can strive towards becoming fully fledged paramedics. This will add great value to health services in the Northern Cape.

Issued by the DA