By Annisa Essack
15:06:2021

Gauteng dominates as the province with more than 67% of COVID-19 cases. To add to its woes, the City of Johannesburg has suspended its ambulance service, citing a lack of vehicle insurance and pharmaceutical supplies. The Emergency Management Services (EMS) staff were told to stop driving the vehicles from Friday.

Home to more than 5 million people, the city ran its ambulance service with a fleet of 100 vehicles until 2018, when Gauteng province took over the running of the service. The fleet was reduced to 40 ambulances which are stretched between Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, and Tshwane. According to Gauteng Health Department spokesperson Kwara Kekana, they are coping.

Municipalities are required to renew their licences annually, but this was not the case except for Tshwane.

The DA’s Gauteng spokesperson on health, Jack Bloom, said that the vehicles lie idle as emergency response times plummet. He added that they received complaints from desperate people who have called an ambulance that does not arrive in good time.

Bloom says that the provincial government should halt its “provincialisation” of ambulances and ensure that all available ambulances and personnel were utilised to save lives in medical emergencies.

Ambulance resources have also been stretched thin following the closure of the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, as emergency crews were now forced to travel long distances to transport patients who needed life-saving treatment.