6 DIE IN 2 MONTHS OF AMBULANCE STRIKE
Staff demand a decade of overtime and safety escorts on callouts
Six people, three of them children, are believed to have died in the ongoing illegal strike by emergency medical services staff who operate ambulances.
Eastern Cape health spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said the department had received reports from the public about lack of response by ambulance staff to emergency cases and subsequent deaths of the people at risk.
The three children said to have died were meant to travel to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in the Western Cape.
Sicwetsha said the matter is being investigated by the department and the story still had to be verified and confirmed.
The EMS strike began in May, when they refused to go out on calls, citing safety concerns.
They also say the health department owes them overtime money dating back to 2003.
Health MEC Helen Sauls-August said: “We take this matter very seriously and we want to gather all the facts around this issue and establish exactly if it was unavailable transport that led to the deaths.
“We sympathise and extend our heartfelt condolences to those who have lost loved ones. We will uncover the truth.”
East London police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala confirmed that a housebreaking suspect died in police custody last week. “Two suspects were rescued from an angry mob on Wednesday and taken to the Fleet Street Police Station. On arrival one of the men walked about six steps and collapsed,” she said.
The police officers phoned the ambulance but were told that they needed police escort from their base in Vincent.
“A van had to leave the station to fetch the ambulance but on arrival the man had already died,” Mqala said.
Sicwetsha said the verification process was necessary to establish whether the internal measures put up by the department to expedite transport of patients were used, such as:
The department making use of private ambulances for priority cases, mainly cases of maternity and children. This is done only when there is no ambulance in the department that can respond within one hour of the call;
Use of the province’s three helicopters for Mthatha, East London and Port Elizabeth, which are available for emergencies. A fixed-wing plane is used for critical patients to be moved to Cape Town. This service can be made available at very short notice; and
Weekly ambulance trips from EL and Port Elizabeth transporting patients to Red Cross Memorial and Tygerberg hospitals in Cape Town.
It is against this background that a thorough investigation is undertaken, especially for staff who would have been aware of these provisions. A senior health officer said one of the children, whose name is known to the Daily Dispatch, was six months old when they died.
The child was due to travel to Red Cross to be treated for an atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) heart condition. AVSD is is a heart defect most often presenting at birth. It involves a hole in the wall between the heart’s lower chambers.
Last month the Dispatch reported that a child died in Butterworth while waiting for an ambulance.
The health department has had to enlist the services of private ambulances in some parts of Buffalo City and Amathole district due to the strike. Ambulance staff involved are in King William’s Town, Mdantsane, Butterworth, Stutterheim, Ngqushwa, Fort Beaufort, Adelaide, Keiskammahoek and Cathcart.
Hundreds of EMS and patient transport officials in the province demand overtime dating back more than a decade. They also complain about lack of safety in their line of work.
Last month, Mbengashe’s office issued an ultimatum instructing them that as essential service workers they could not go on strike.
We extend our heartfelt condolences ... We will uncover the truth Helen Sauls-August Health MEC
An ongoing emergency medical services strike in the Eastern Cape has led to the closure of some ambulance bases.
Provincial health superintendent-general Dr Thobile Mbengashe last week said the bases, including King William’s Town, Stutterheim and Cathcart, would be closed because the staff were not working.
“We have to keep reiterating that it is illegal for EMS staff to strike because they are an essential service.
“There were ultimatum letters sent to staff but even that did not encourage them to go back to work. We cannot continue like this. Those bases have to be closed,” Mbengashe said.
The EMS staff say they have been locked out of the bases.
The strike began in May when they refused to go out on calls, citing safety concerns.
They also say the health department owes them overtime money dating back to 2003.
“We have been communicating with the unions that there is a task team with the responsibility and mandate of ascertaining who is owed what.
“Regarding the security issue, the department has arranged for a security company to accompany them when they go out to calls. Furthermore, the SAPS has done a report that there are no red zones as they allege,” Mbengashe said.
On Thursday, King William’s Town-based staffer Zama Skalika said he was shocked to arrive at work to find the gate locked.
“I do not have a car, so I have to get to work early. I was here at 6am for my 7am shift and I was told by the security guard that the ambulances were taken away by senior health officials and there was an instruction not to unlock.
King William’s Town EMS base storage employee Zanele Mqingwane said she had also been locked out of the base.
“If the department has a problem with the paramedics why did they lock us all out?
“I work in storage, I don’t drive ambulances.
“I have been sitting here for two days in a row. I cannot stay away from work for no reason because I am a single mother and my children depend on me to bring in an income,” Mqingwane said.
The base has 12 vehicles, including ambulances, patient transport vehicles, a rescue vehicle and an MOU vehicle meant for maternity patients with incubators fitted. They are meant to service Bhisho, Zwelitsha, Mount Coke, Zeleni, Phiri Mission, Kei Road, Zalara, Ndevana, Mthombe and other surrounding areas.
This means hundreds of thousands of residents who do not have medical aids, are not able to get effective and efficient medical assistance as there are no vehicles for their areas.