Desperate patients have been left in the lurch by striking ambulance staff and, despite the illegality of their action, the provincial health department says its strategy is to keep on talking to the unionists.
The Dispatch tracked down two patients who spoke of how they called for an ambulance and it never arrived.
The strike, which was never publicly announced – mainly because emergency medical service staff are deemed to be an essential service and therefore forbidden under the Labour Relations Act to strike – has affected a number of towns throughout the province.
The Dispatch was told by state paramedics yesterday that they were fed up with not receiving backdated salary monies owed by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) from as far back as 2003.
A paramedic in East London said: “The only calls we respond to are car accidents, gun shootings or when a pedestrian is knocked over by a car.
“It’s not that we don’t care about people’s lives, but how are we expected to deliver services when we are so disgruntled?”
Despite the illegality of the strike, no disciplinary steps have been taken by the provincial department of health, with the official response being to try to negotiate a settlement.
Buffalo City Metro resident Nalita Mpondo said that last month she called an ambulance for a sick relative in Cove Rock. “I started phoning the ambulance at 8pm.
“The operator asked where I was and I told them, and they said they would transfer the call.
“The call was cut and I called again. I told them about the person’s condition – that they were vomiting and had diarrhoea. I was told they would send the ambulance but they had to wait for police because ambulances are not dispatched without police escort,” said Mpondo.
EMS employees, who asked to remain anonymous, accused the health department of trying to cover up the ambulance crisis by disregarding their pleas.
“The stories are one-sided and make us out to be rebellious. It makes us look like we’re striking because we want to. But the issue is that the department is refusing to give us our money. [EMS staff] are disgruntled and enraged. This is their hard-earned money that the department is robbing them of,” they said.
One ambulance man said Eastern Cape EMS employees were the only ones in the country who were owed “thousands of rands for excess working hours by the department.
“According to the [legislation] we work extended hours, and therefore qualify for extra pay for these hours. Other provinces have been getting this money, it’s just the Eastern Cape that hasn’t been.
“The department promised it would pay us the money owed to us at the beginning of this financial year [June1], but now that the time has come they are dragging their feet.
“We know the money is there because each year the department always returns large sums of money to the national Department of Health.”
The medic said: “We’re partly working in East London, and in Mdantsane the paramedics only want the police to escort them.”
He said the strike was severe in King William’s Town, Butterworth and Peddie.
Health spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said: “EMS is an essential service and therefore EMS workers can never go on strike.
“This service can’t be disrupted at any time. We advise all our healthcare workers and professionals not to use their grievances to disrupt healthcare services, including emergency services. The MEC [Helen Sauls-August] is working with management to address these challenges. She has met with the unions.
“The engagements are ongoing and we appeal to all workers to give space to internal engagements to find resolutions.”..