MEC Sambatha announces measures to improve delivery of EMS services in the province
The North West Department of Health will implement five mega health intervention programmes in the 2022/2023 financial year all aimed at enhancing the delivery of health services and ensuring coordination to better manage resources.
This was revealed by MEC Madoda Sambatha during his provincial budget speech at the North West Provincial Legislature this week.
According to MEC Sambatha, improving the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) remains one of the ten priority areas of his department with a plan to lease the emergency medical services planned patient transport and laundry services vehicles being a primary focus.
Citing changes intended to improve the EMS services and impact positively on their response to critically injured and ill patient in the province, MEC Sambatha announced the appointment of officials to key vacant positions.
" In the past financial year, we appointed forty six (46) EMS officials in the management and production positions that include EMS Operations Manager, Station Managers, Shift Leaders and Advanced Life Support Practitioners," he said said.
The MEC further announced the procurement and conversion of 50 ambulances at a cost of forty six million rand (R46 Million) as part of a strategy to improve EMS response and meet the national norms which require for the province to have an additional three hundred and fifty (350) ambulances.
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"As much as we have made progress, we acknowledge that the current red fleet is not sufficient to service the population. Of the fifty (50) ambulances which have been procured, 21 of them were distributed in December 2021 and the remaining delivered in March 2022", MEC Sambatha announced.
To further ensure faster and improved ambulance coverage, the Department is pursuing an alternative procurement model of a full maintenance lease while procuring fifty (50) additional red fleet vehicles.
"The planned lease with full maintenance will be jointly managed with the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management and will cover ambulances, planned patient transport, forensic pathology services ad laundry services vehicles", said the MEC.
With the leasing model, the department will be able to meet the national norm which requires the province to increase its red fleet to 350 within 2-3 as opposed to the 7 year period it would have taken had a more traditional procurement model been followed.
The EMS and other response vehicles lease implementation will commence in the Ngaka Modiri Molema and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati Districts in 2022/2023 while the Kenneth Kaunda implementation will follow in 2023/2024.
