News
HST Collects relevant news from a variety of sources, for your convenience. Select a story from below, or use our search feature to find stories of interest.

Life and death struggle on SA's roads
CHANTELLE BENJAMIN and ALEX ELISEEV
2005-01-21

Paramedics are under equipped and undermanned

I tried to pump blood out of a mans lungs but the suction pump was old and broken

OFF-DUTY paramedic Michael Vermeulen watched in horror as he helped an accident victim onto an ambulance stretcher only for the rotten wood to break and the critically injured woman fall to the floor.

The woman died in my arms, said the Pretoria-based paramedic, who stopped at the scene of a horrific smash on the N1 near Laingsburg two weeks ago while travelling to Cape Town. A paramedic for 15 years, Vermeulen recalled how he tried in vain to rescue the passengers of an overturned taxi but had to work against the efforts of a badly equipped ambulance and clueless emergency workers.

I tried to pump blood out of a mans lungs but the suction pump was old and broken and I couldnt get it to work, he said.The ambulance was sub-standard, Vermeulen added. None of the equipment worked. These incidents are just two of many that highlight the critical state of the countrys under-funded, understaffed and ill-equipped emergency services. The time it takes ambulances to reach the scene of an accident is also a major cause for concern.

A study by the Health Systems Trust found that in KwaZulu- Natal an ambulance took, on average, two hours and 42 minutes to arrive at the scene of an accident, 11 times the 15-minute response time stipulated for an urban area by the national Department of Health. The departments target is 40 minutes for rural areas. In the Eastern Cape, the response time is two hours and 18 minutes, while Mpumalanga and Limpopo have an average response time of about two hours.Gauteng came in seventh in the national averages with a response time of one hour and 42 minutes.
Nationally, there is only one ambulance per 26000 people and one paramedic for every 51000 people, both public and private combined.

Most local councils responsible for running ambulance services on behalf of their provinces are desperately short of ambulances and properly trained staff.
Jacques Goosen, president of the Trauma Society of South Africa and a surgeon at Johannesburg Hospitals trauma unit, said people died at the roadside because pre-hospital care was substandard and overburdened.There are not enough crews out there, he said.According to research done by the society a year ago, of the people who died from injury and trauma, 70% died on the scene, 15% within 24 hours and 15% within days or weeks.

In First World countries, only about 33% of patients die on the scene, 33% within 24 hours and the rest days or weeks later.Dr Ockert van Heerden, who works at Laingsburg Hospital, which is on one of the countrys deadliest stretch of highway, said ambulances were nothing more than beds. The ambulances and the response times are pathetic, he said. People are dying and we cant do anything about it. The area, which has almost 700 deaths for every 100000 people travelling on the N1, has only one operating ambulance. It is manned by one driver who has only basic emergency-care skills and who works until 5pm. A paramedic has to come from Worcester, 160km away.The Western Cape division of emergency services, which deals with popular holiday spots like Hout Bay and Muizenberg, has just six ambulances operating at night and during the day on weekends.

Pumzile Papu, Cape Towns assistant director of emergency medical services, admitted the city was battling to cope over the holiday season.We sometimes have to send ambulances from Pinelands to attend to calls in that area [Muizenberg and Hout Bay], he said.But its not as bad as Khayelitsha, where people can wait three hours for an ambulance.
(Source: Allafrica, December 19, 2004)

Keywords	This Item is associated with the Following Keywords: .
You Can Comment on this Item, or View other people's Comments
Easy Print  Email to a friend

	Related News
	Jo'burg emergency services need kiss of life (2000-08-18) People die waiting, health minister told (2004-02-25) Gauteng AIDS prevention progressing (2003-02-06) Only 4X4s and motorbikes get to Eastern Cape rural health centres (2000-05-29) Health care gets a shot in arm from budget (2005-05-03)

	Related Publications
	166 SA children die from starvation (2002-11-01) Community Service (2001-01-23) South African Health Review 1997 (2000-06-08) Briefing note on local government health service financing and expenditure and moving towards monitoring equity in local government health services (2001-07-11) People who provide health care (2000-05-12)

	Related Health Statistics
	Percentage clinics with emergency response < 1 hour (0000-00-00) Number of admissions for alcohol and other drug abuse (2007-05-21) Per capita expenditure (non-hospital PHC) (2007-08-17) Watch TV more than 3 hours per day (2004-05-19) Unemployment rate (official definition) (2004-10-21)

	Related Events
	PUBLIC HEALTH FORUM (0000-00-00) Symposium: The threat of emerging & re-emerging diseases To Global Health Security (2002-11-04) The 5th International Conference on Home and Community Care for Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (2001-12-17) New Agendas for Poverty Reduction Strategies: Integrating Gender and Health (2001-02-20) 10th Anniversary Conference of the Children in Distress Network (2006-04-03)

	Related links
	MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines Groote Schuur Hospital iThemba Lethu The Topsy Foundation World AIDS Day

	Related Content
	District Health Barometer - Collection and categorisation of indicators (2005-01-20) ISDS Site: Alfred Nzo District (2004-05-10) Health and Management Information Systems (HMIS) Projects (2006-09-29) SAHR 2007: Media Coverage (2007-12-12) ISDS Site: Oliver Thambo District Municipality (2004-05-10)