Ambulance no-show angers PSJ businessman

DA councillor turned businessman Mbongeni Kotana wants Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba to investigate why ambulances never arrived at an accident scene in Port St Johns at the weekend.

Nine crash victims, some with serious injuries and broken bones, were taken in private cars to a nearby health facility for medical assistance after some hours of waiting for the ambulances in the early hours on Saturday. The accident occurred at about 1am.

An angry Kotana, who was among those summoned to help, said: “We phoned the [health department] emergency call centre on several occasions but we couldn’t get through. We also tried phoning the numbers of some ambulance drivers, but their phones were off.”

Kotana claimed he even tried phoning provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo, who initially promised to help. But when he tried phoning him again, Kupelo’s cellphone had been switched off.

But Kupelo refuted Kotana ’ s claim on Monday. Instead, he

The MEC must investigate why the call centre was not reachable

said the former councillor had only phoned him on Saturday afternoon and, by that time, the victims had already been taken to a health centre in Port St Johns.

Kotana said the six women and three men were injured when a Honda Ballade and a Volkswagen Polo collided headon near Second Beach.

The victims are from Ngqeleni, Chaguba and Majola in Port St Johns.

Kotana said he had later been informed that some had been transferred to the Nelson Mandela Academic and Bedford hospitals in Mthatha.

Kotana said a state ambulance arrived at the health centre at 10am.

“The MEC must investigate why the call centre was unreachable and also the general situation regarding ambulances. If we had not acted, some of those people may have died.”

Kupelo said he had escalated the matter to the department’s provincial general manager for further investigation.

However, he said Kotana and the rest of the community members had no business phoning ambulances after the injured had been taken to the health centre.

“Once you reach a health facility, it is not your responsibility to call an ambulance. But I have relayed the information to our provincial GM,” he said.

The spokesperson also advised against transporting patients in private cars, saying “those people are not trained in handling and caring for accident victims”.

Kupelo said when calling in to report emergencies, people should ensure they call the 10177 number and not the network provider’s emergency numbers.