Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government
On Monday afternoon, together with senior officials of the Gauteng Health Department, I will be meeting the Gauteng Region of the South African Municipal Workers Union to discuss the renewal of the province's ambulance fleet.
We regard this meeting as a final opportunity for Samwu to present an option which is at least as cost effective and as beneficial to the public as our proposal to replace the entire fleet and keep it efficiently serviced in terms of a full maintenance lease agreement with a private sector company.
For two months we have delayed awarding the ambulance tender because of Samwu's objections to the lease scheme. During this time the union had undertaken to look into the options throughly and to present us with an alternative which avoided the factor of leasing.
The Government is always prepared to give public sector unions a fair hearing where any of its policies may have a material impact on working conditions. It was in this spirit that I invited Samwu to discuss the ambulance issue - although the union has no members in the Gauteng public service.
But it is quite clear that the overriding responsibility of the Gauteng Health Department in this situation is to protect ill people, victims of violence and accident victims across the province who depend on effective ambulance services for their very lives.
Therefore we approach the meeting with Samwu with a determination to resolve this issue speedily and to move ahead in acquiring new ambulances.
Yesterday a copy of the union's document, "A vision for transformed emergency medical services", was delivered to this office. The report includes many valid criticisms of aspects of the ambulance service and Samwu is aware of the measures being taken to address these shortcomings.
I can only assume that the document is also intended to be a response to my invitation to Samwu to present a viable alternative to the Gauteng Health Department's ambulance leasing plan.
In addition, a newspaper report today states that Samwu believes that the Province should simply buy as many ambulances as the budget would allow...
If the document and the reported comments represent the sum of Samwu's thinking on the replacement of the ambulance fleet, then the union plainly has no workable alternative to the Gauteng government's proposal. In fact, there is nothing to indicate that Samwu has given any thought to the following factors:
Samwu will have to place something far more substantial on the table on Monday to persuade me that it has not been using the ambulance lease plan misguidedly to swell the anti-privatisation campaign.
We should point out that there could hardly be a weaker case on which to argue the privatisation issue. The plan to lease ambulances, instead of purchasing them, is by no means a sweeping privatisation initiative. Its aim is to benefit all citizens of Gauteng in event of a medical emergency and, in particular, to ensure that residents in under-serviced communities have access to emergency help.
Under the leasing plan, ambulance services will continue to be managed and staffed by local authorities. There will be no change in tariffs charged to members of the public who use the service. And there will be no retrenchment of municipal ambulance staff.
The only significant change lies in the servicing and repairing of ambulances, which would be the responsibility of the company with whom the province signs the lease agreement.
However, the withdrawal of this work from local authority garages and the Government Garage will hardly make a dent in the volume of repairs which they handle and it will not jeopardise jobs. This factor fades into insignificance when weighed up against the benefits of rapid, efficient servicing of our ambulances.
If Samwu does not have a cost-effective ambulance renewal plan which will ensure good standards of emergency service and will increase the coverage of this service, then it should concede this is the case. Jobs are not at stake here. What is at stake is the very lives of seriously ill and injured Gauteng residents.
Amos Masondo MEC for Health
21 June 1996
Inquiries to: Philip van Rensburg (Director of Emergency Medical Services, Gauteng) Tel: 082 372 0555
Released by the Gauteng Communications Directorate on behalf of the Office of the MEC for Health.