The 28 new ambulances that the Department of Health in Limpopo procured are not nearly enough, but the step to alleviate the serious need for ambulances is still welcomed.
The ambulances were delivered to the Voortrekker Hospital in the Mogalakwena Local Municipality (Potgietersrus) in the Waterberg District yesterday. These are in addition to the 70 which were recently procured.
With the Department’s 2023/24 budget speech, the MEC for Health, Ms Phophi Ramathuba, announced that the Department was re-prioritising its budgetary allocations and that an amount of R500 million would be earmarked to procure 500 ambulances.
This demonstrates the extent of the need.
It is important to continually keep procuring new ambulances and not to wait until there is a huge backlog.
Limpopo has a population of just more than 6,4 million people. The national health guidelines recommend a ratio of one ambulance for every 10 000 people.
The hospitals that received ambulances are the Siloam Hospital in the Vhembe District Municipality (Louis Trichardt, Musina) (35 ambulances) and the Nkhensani Hospital in the Mopani District Municipality (Hoedspruit, Tzaneen, Phalaborwa) (35).
The Department is aiming to deliver another 402 new ambulances before the end of 2023.
The FF Plus would like to see that these ambulances are distributed in a way that considers areas and towns’ needs and demand for emergency services, for instance, Vaalwater.
The maintenance plans for these new ambulances should also be prioritised and properly implemented.
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