Central SA
Northern Cape Health prioritises its headaches─── KEKELETSO MOSEBETSI 09:24 Tue, 18 Apr 2023
The shortage of staff, ambulances, and old infrastructure are some of the challenges that the Northern Cape Department of Health has to prioritise to ensure that its health system in the province is improved.
This is according to the MEC for Health, Maruping Lekwene, during the sexual reproductive health campaign and march against illegal and unsafe abortions. This was held at the Sol Plaatje South Campus University on Friday 14 April 2023.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape recently lashed out at the health department for a lack of operational ambulances in the province, saying that they have led to the death of nine people on the N1 outside Hanover. The accident took place on Monday morning 13 March 2023, between a taxi and a mining truck, and nine lives were lost; four on the scene while five succumbed to their injuries in the hospital.
ALSO READ: Lack of ambulances blamed for nine Northern Cape deaths
In an interview with the OFM News team, Lekwene said the department has summarised its challenges into three, mainly the shortage of professional nurses and doctors, infrastructure which is old, falls apart and needs renovations, while the third challenge is around the Emergency Medical Services. He acknowledged that people have been complaining that they come after hours after people have called for an emergency.
Lekwene, however, adds that the problem is not mainly the shortage of ambulances in the province but rather shortage of EMS health professionals.
“We don’t necessarily have that shortage of ambulances. It’s a twin challenge, it’s directional. It’s both your EMS professionals plus the cars. You can have the cars and not have sufficient professionals, we don’t talk about the driver,” he said.
Lekwene further revealed that his department will be employing 300 EMS staff while emergency vehicles have also been procured.
SABC News previously reported that frustrated residents say the emergency response time is poor as there are only three ambulances available for Kimberley's population of over 400 000. Despite the department announcing a major overhaul of its services last year, the prolonged challenges facing the department remain.
In March of 2022, Lekwene said they had invested in 92 new vehicles worth over R50 million since 2019. But residents say they are yet to benefit from the overhaul.
