Ambulance service shift

Ambulance services in Ekurhuleni may be taken over by Gauteng province by the end of June, but the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the metro opposes the move.

The party said it believed this would violate residents’ constitutional rights to health.

Tania Campbell, DA member for community safety in Ekurhuleni, said: “The DA opposes the politically driven decision to provincialise the city’s ambulance services and its employees, mainly because there was no prior consultation and the documentation about the decision has not been made available to interested parties.

“Although not smoothly operated, the City of Ekurhuleni has run the emergency medical service on behalf of the Gauteng provincial government for more than a decade.”

William Ntladi, spokesperson for Ekurhuleni emergency services, said the proposal was made about 10 years ago. The matter had been on and off the table for discussion.

He said the city received the confirmed date of 30 June on 20 January.

“The City of Ekurhuleni is waiting for engagement between the metro’s task team and the task team of Gauteng health’s emergency services,” said Ntladi.

“No date has been set, as we are waiting for council approval to engage on the process,”

The metro has no option but to provincialise the service.

“The city has been providing ambulance services on behalf of the province on an agency basis.

“A memorandum of agreement was signed between the city and the province, as the function of emergency medical services, constitutionally, is the function of the province.

“If Ekurhuleni wants to continue with the rendering of the service, it has to apply for a licence from the MEC of health.”

Should the transfer take place, the vehicles procured by the province would be transferred back to the province. What would happen to staff and vehicles procured by the City of Ekurhuleni would be determined during the engagement between the task teams.

Campbell said the city had purchased specialised equipment worth R108 691.876 and the province had not mentioned compensating the metro.

“It is concerning that despite the city having had months to sort out the transfer of the ambulance service, it has done so without taking into consideration the backlash and negative consequences of its actions to |communities,” said Campbell.

“We are yet to receive the province’s business, implementation and transitional plans to take over this function. Should this plan be implemented, the DA believes the lives of many Ekurhuleni residents will be put at risk. Allowing this transfer to go through in its current state will be nothing short of a disaster.”

– Caxton News Service