The City of Tshwane Emergency Services was compiled to seize emergency medical operations which includes among others ambulance services with immediate effect on Friday the 5 March. This comes after the provincial government failed to honour agreement to extend emergency services operating licenses.
The MMC for Community Safety in Tshwane Alderman Karen Meyer said this action was extremely unfortunate but necessary.
“It is unfortunate because ultimately the residents of Tshwane will suffer as a result of the vacuum that is created by the termination of ambulance services rendered by the City- a vacuum that is evident the provincial Department of Health cannot and has no intention to fill,” said Meyer.
Meyer said it is necessary because the City cannot operate beyond the confines of the law and opens itself up to legal liability should it continue to operate an ambulance service without the requisite license.
“Until the license matter has been resolved, the City cannot render ambulance services and the city’s emergency call center will be relaying calls to the provincial emergency medical services call center to be processed,” she said.
She said the City is in a process of finalizing the license application and it will be submitted to the provincial health Department as soon as the payment for the application is affected.
“We sincerely hope that this matter is resolved speedily, and that the residents of Tshwane are not too severely negatively impacted by the provincial departments continuous delay,” said Meyer.
