Top health official's family fall victim to ambulance crisis

The anguish of Eastern Cape residents over ambulance delays in the province was felt by the top official in health MEC Sindiswa Gomba’s office on Tuesday when his family waited almost two hours for an ambulance. Their critically ill relative died.

On Wednesday Gomba’s chief of staff, Andile Sidinile, took to social media to voice his outrage over the time it took to arrive at the family’s Mdantsane home.

His brother took ill on Tuesday night.

Bhisho legislature's health portfolio committee chair and ANC MPL Mxolisi Dimaza was sympathetic about Sidinile’s reaction, saying the ambulance situation was a serious problem.

Sidinile, who vowed to take those responsible to task, was also upset at the attitude of one of the ambulance drivers, whom he said was rude when he asked for an explanation as to why they took so long to attend to the call.

The ambulance, which was dispatched from Vincent in East London, took more than an hour and 40 minutes to arrive in Mdantsane, which is less than 20km away.

Sidinile, who vowed to leave no stone unturned in dealing with the matter, said in a  Facebook post he would not be taking the ambulance official's behaviour lying down.

“I will follow this up. He acted rude for the last time. I have his name.”  

Contacted for comment on Wednesday, Sidinile  refused to talk about either the incident or his Facebook post, saying doing so would put him into trouble with his employer.

He asked for the story not to be published and later deleted the post, which already had more than 70 comments by 10am, just a few hours after it was posted.

In the post, Sidinile wrote: “I just personally experienced how our people are treated by our EMS [emergency medical services] personnel. My uncle called me around 22h50, telling me my brother is not breathing. I immediately called an ambulance (Vincent). The lady said she dispatched it at around 23h15. By 00h00 it had not arrived in Mdantsane, from Vincent.

“I called again at 00h15, checking. The lady on the phone asked me to hold. I held for more than five minutes, then dropped [the call] I called my uncle to check if the ambulance arrived. He later confirmed they arrived. I then asked to speak to the ambulance driver to ask what took him so long. He rudely answered that I should not ask him that question. I will follow this up. He acted rude for the last time. I have his name. By the way, my brother passed away.”

Neither Gomba nor health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo could be reached for comment by print deadline on Wednesday, despite several calls and WhatsApp messages.

But Dimaza said the two-hour turnaround time experienced by Sidinile's family was often far worse, as he had heard of ambulances taking four or even eight hours to respond to emergencies.  

He said it was a serious problem, compounded by a huge shortage of emergency vehicles and personnel.

Some ambulances were even being repaired in Durban and Bloemfontein, he said.

Dimaza said his committee had recently recommended to the legislature that ambulances should be taken back from the provincial transport department  and overseen by the health department “so that it could have total control when such vehicles are out for repairs”.

Nehawu provincial co-ordinator Themba Bangani told the Dispatch last week that EMS employees were in a stand-off with their employer over a number of grievances, including unpaid overtime.

He said some employees had even resorted to not answering their own private cellphones when they were called by the call centre to attend to emergencies.

At an event in East London last week, Gomba called on health workers, including the EMS officials, to put on hold any grievances and to focus on serving the people.

The MEC promised the issues would be attended to when the festive season was over.

Delays and ambulance shortages have  been reported in many parts of the province.

A Butterworth family recently had to use their private vehicle to transport their ailing relative  to Frere Hospital in East London because of the ambulance shortage, as the Dispatch reported.