Cape Town - Current financial constraints facing the Health and Wellness Department mean there are no immediate plans to increase the number of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulances serving the community of Atlantis.
This was Health and Wellness MEC Nomafrench Mbombo’s written reply to GOOD MPL Shaun August about whether the EMS has a plan to allocate more ambulances to Wesfleur Hospital.
August had also asked about the current ambulance allocation from the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to the hospital.
In her answer, MEC Mbombo said the situation was not restricted to the Atlantis station alone and was a challenge faced across the city.
She said: “The issue is not related to the number of ambulances, but instead is a staffing challenge as it takes nine staff to provide one ambulance 24/7/365.”
Mbombo said increasing the number of resources, in this case ambulances, to an area would require an increase in staff, but that in the interim, EMS was exploring alternative models of service delivery to see if they could increase the services/coverage to an area without an increase in resources.
“This will require creativity and collaboration with the communities and our health stakeholders, and we remain committed to this goal.”
Mbombo said there were no ambulances specifically allocated to any facility, including Wesfleur Hospital, but that EMS did have a station located on the premises of the hospital.
She said that two ambulances service the community of Atlantis and its surrounds during the day shift and of these, one ambulance attends to primary calls and the other performs inter-facility transfers to New Somerset or Groote Schuur Hospital. At night only one ambulance was on duty.
August had also asked about the state of health care at the Wesfleur Hospital with regard to how many patients receive medical treatment per day, week and month at the hospital.
To this Mbombo replied that Wesfleur Hospital on average saw 125 patients a day, 875 a week and 3 500 patients a month at the EC.
The hospital outpatient department (OPD) saw on average 357 daily, 2500 a week and 10 000 a month.
In addition, the Obstetrics and Gynaecology theatre performs approximately 35 to 40 caesarean sections a month and attends to on average 60 new sexual assault cases a month at its Thuthuzela Centre.
Mbombo said that while the hospital was expected to deliver a District Hospital package of care, a large proportion of clients still access the facility for primary health-care services and this led to overcrowding and long waiting times.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za