Gauteng residents often complain about poor ambulance response times, but 350 out of 1244 public ambulances are currently out of action because of maintenance and repairs.

This is revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to Mokgethi, the non-operational ambulances are due to scheduled services, accident repairs and unplanned maintenance due to breakdowns. Delays occur in repairing ambulances because of quotations from multiple service providers, inspecting the damage and getting authorisations for repairs, and merchant outsourcing of parts.

Last year there were 167 reported accidents of emergency ambulances, compared to 79 cases the year before, with 68 disciplinary cases for misconduct and final warning. It cost about R5.5 million to repair the accident damage in the past two years.

I am concerned by the high number of accidents and the long delays in servicing and repairing ambulances when they are needed to provide an emergency service for the province.

According to national norms and standards, Gauteng should have 1600 ambulances to serve its population, but only has 894 currently available ambulances because nearly 30% of ambulances are stuck in the repair shop.

The Gauteng Health Department needs to curb the reckless driving of ambulances and streamline repairs and maintenance so that as many ambulances as possible are on the road to serve the public.

 

Issued by The DA