Red Cross AMS heralded by MEC
THE SA Red Cross Air Mercy Services (AMS) has been praised for its contribution to saving countless lives over the past two decades.
Speaking at an event held to honour the anniversary, KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, hailed the team for its work in providing services to people in far-flung areas of the province.
He described the partnership between the department and AMS as a valuable one, adding that it has gone a long way to save lives.
Dhlomo welcomed the recent establishment of a mobile medical training simulator unit, which had been funded by the National Lotteries Commission.
This road-based unit provides a cost effective learning platform for medical personnel to be trained in the field of emergency medical services. It makes training more accessible to staff working in the rural areas, creating opportunities for career growth, capacity building, and skills development, ensuring the efficient and equitable utilisation of the air ambulance service.
“To travel from Kokstad to Durban, for instance, is about four and half hours. It’s the same with Manguzi to Durban.
“If you had to have a patient in Manguzi or Kokstad who has been examined and the doctors are saying he or she has poly-trauma, which means several critical injuries and bleeding, that patient can’t be assisted in a distant area. That patient needs to be connected to the machines, put in ICU, on a ventilator and receive more blood. That can only be done at a bigger hospital like Albert Luthuli,” he said.
Dhlomo added that the advanced technology allowed the department to treat patients who would otherwise have died.
“The beneficiaries aren’t just the Department of Health, but the citizens of KZN. It is going to cause less panic for people to know that even if, God forbid, I were to get into an accident in Nongoma, uMhlabuyalingana or Kokstad, I am safe because this department is able to send this helicopter with this advanced technology to pick me up, and within 30 minutes I’m at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital.”AMS chief executive Dr Phillip Erasmus said that in line with creating access to health care for all communities and strengthening the national health system, the programme is growing to include all fraternities of medicine so even the most marginalised communities in the peripheral areas can enjoy the same health benefits as citizens in urban settings.