Tshwane’s special unit ambulance

The Tshwane metro says having a special infection unit ambulance equipped with technology to safely transport patients with infectious conditions has boosted its response to Covid-19.

While the Tshwane special infectious unit bulletproof ambulance launched last year were not necessarily planned for Covid-19, the metro believed that it had strengthened its response to the pandemic.

Tshwane emergency services spokesman Charles Mabaso said the special unit ambulance – which cost R1.2 million – equipped with an isolation chamber was the first of its kind in SA.

He said it fulfilled a key requirement to deal with hazardous incidents such as viral haemorrhagic fever, extensively drug-resistant or multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and Covid-19 patient treatment and transportation.

“The box body of the ambulance is mounted separately from the cabin of the vehicle. It is constructed from aviation technology polyurethane and is a hermetically sealed unit mounted onto the chassis,” he said.

“It has an isolation chamber equipped with a negative pressure filtration system that fits on the stainless steel monobloc ambulance stretcher. The negative pressure isolation chamber allows the patient to be scanned in the chamber without exposing the radiology staff to infection such as Covid-19 and without needing to decontaminate the computerised tomography (CT) scanning suite.”

While the patient would be inside the stretcher covered with transparent materials, Mabaso said they could breathe and receive medication.

“A 50-litre fridge is installed for refrigerated medications. Piped medical oxygen with two wall outlets, four power points, two ultraviolet antimicrobial lights and filters are installed,” he said.

The ambulance arrived at a time when the safety of health workers has been at the heart of the nation’s Covid-19 pandemic response, many raising issues of safety or at least measures set up as they deal directly with infected people and risk of them being infected running at a high.