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EMS centralisation costs lives of new-born twins

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Dear MyPE

The non-sensical centralisation of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) by the Department of Health can be directly attributed to the heart-breaking loss of two new-born twins in Michausdal, Cradock last week.

The 37-year-old mother went into premature labour at home last week Tuesday, 29 September 2020. Her husband immediately called EMS and requested an ambulance to take his wife to Cradock Provincial Hospital, a mere four minutes’ drive away.

Instead an ambulance was dispatched from Komani, where the EMS service for the region has been centralised.

The husband’s first call was at 19:43 on Tuesday evening. Several calls followed, with the EMS service assuring the callers that an ambulance was on its way. The ambulance only arrived at 20:44, a full hour after the initial call.

People must wait, sometimes for hours at a time, for an ambulance to be dispatched because there are no ambulances based at the Cradock Provincial Hospital, to service people in the immediate vicinity.

In this case, while waiting for the ambulance, the mother gave birth to her twins at home and sadly, although she and her babies were transferred to the hospital, both twins had passed by the following morning.

It is simply unacceptable that, in an emergency, with a hospital literally around the corner, this family’s life has been torn apart, because of a departmental policy that takes resources away from areas where they are needed.

In the DA-led Western Cape, EMS services are decentralised across the province for quick and effective response to health emergencies. The emergency situation gets assessed over the phone and priority 1 patients (those whose lives are under threat) will have access to an ambulance in 15 minutes or less, more than 80% of the time

My colleague at the Eastern Cape Legislature, Shadow MEC for Health, Jane Cowley has previously raised this issue with Health MEC, Sindiswa Gomba, requesting that the decentralisation of EMS services be prioritised, so that turnaround times are dramatically reduced.

I will be writing to MEC Gomba to request a full investigation into this matter and will be submitting a motion during the next sitting of the legislature, to request that the EMS services be decentralised.

We cannot deprive the people of this province of their rights to healthcare!

Regards

Retief Odendaal, MPL
DA EC Midlands Constituency Leader

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