50,000 People – One Ambulance

There is only one working ambulance for a population of more than 50,000 in the Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape.

• Only one of six ambulances in the Sundays River Valley Municipality is working.
• Residents say their lives are at stake.
• The provincial health department says four ambulances are being repaired and one is too costly to repair.

Ndumiso Maloni from Kirkwood in the Sundays River Valley Municipality thinks his brother might still be alive if the municipality’s single operational ambulance had not taken four hours to arrive.

Only one of six ambulances are working in the municipality, in which more than 50,000 people live according to the 2022 Census.

Maloni said after receiving a WhatsApp message on 12 September from his sister that their brother was sick, he rushed to his brother’s house in Moses Mabida township in Kirkwood.

He said neighbours and family had already called for an ambulance at 6am, but had been referred by the emergency call centre to a clinic which only opened at 8am. Maloni said he tried to get help from the Sundays River Valley Hospital and left his number. At 10am the emergency call centre phoned him and said his brother must be taken to a clinic. “We had already hired a private vehicle at R150 to the Sundays River Valley Hospital. The man needed emergency assistance and not just a clinic.

“At about midday we received a call from the call centre again, saying the ambulance was now available. But my brother had already died,” he said.

Mzimkhulu Magugu, also from Moses Mabida township, said: “We have eight wards in this municipality and it’s an open secret that we only have one operating ambulance. The lives of many people are very much at stake here.”

PR councillor Karen Smith (DA), said: “One ambulance is simply not good enough; we need at least six ambulances in this municipality. This is life or death. People are using private vehicles and public transport to go to and from hospital.”

PR councillor Minette Bosman (DA) said earlier this month she had been at an accident scene in Kirkwood but the single working ambulance was in Addo. “We had to get a private ambulance to come out and assist,” she said.

Bosman said the municipality has been especially busy during harvest season, when about 15,000 seasonal workers arrive, putting further pressure on emergency services. The season ended last week.

“We have already seen tragedies narrowly avoided — from mothers in active labour with no ambulance available, to community members told to wait hours until the night shift. In life-threatening situations like these, minutes can mean the difference between life and death. Yet in the Sundays River Valley, people are forced to wait hours,” she said.

Eastern Cape Department of Health spokesperson Siyanda Manana confirmed that only one of the six ambulances in the Sundays River Valley Municipality was working. Four were “awaiting repairs” after mechanical failures, and a fifth was too costly to repair and would be replaced.

He said in the meantime, the closest available ambulance in other areas was being diverted to respond to emergencies. “Operational managers” were responding to emergency calls to provide on-scene stabilisation and assessment, and helicopters were being used to move patients from one hospital to another.

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