During the week of 4 to 6 February the Western Cape Government Health Services (EMS) responded to 117 incidents in Red Zone areas, 14 of which were reported in Chicago, Paarl.
According to EMS spokesperson, Deanna February, EMS responded to a total of 5 594 incidents in the Western Cape during the past weekend.
“Other Red Zone areas in which 117 cases and 165 transport-related incidents were attended to also include Beacon Valley, Mitchells Plain (40); Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain (37) and Hanover Park (26). “Ambulance crews are not allowed to enter these zones without a South African Police Service escort.”
Most patients were transported to the Tygerberg, Worcester and George hospitals. Tygerberg Hospital facilitated most incidents, according to February, with 209 patients in addition to 128 patients received by Paarl Hospital.
Red Zones have been a grave challenge interfering with EMS officials’ ability to respond to emergency situations, since these zones were identified following serious incidents of criminal or life threatening attacks from violent community members.
This not only makes life threatening incidents seeking immediate care more dire, but also requires additional resources from already strained police forces to escort EMS into Red Zones before entering, not to mention senseless acts of rocks being thrown at resources like ambulance vehicles.
Paarl Post previously reported on EMS responders being targeted in Red Zones, like Chicago and Mbekweni, on numerous occasions. Many first responders’ lives have been threatened at knife or gunpoint, while standing-off to patients’ whose lives were already threatened and in dire need of care.
Officials in managerial positions in the EMS industry have highlighted how state property like ambulance vehicles have been damaged by rogue community members in the past, leaving these vehicles indisposed for long periods while awaiting available budget for repairs.
It is the very communities in Red Zones suffering at large because of the select lawless few among them, as EMS await the escort services of police already stretched to the limit with crime fighting as it is.
This amounts to precious minutes being lost in emergency situations in which actual patients await their fate dependant on so many factors not related to health care, but crime prevention. This issue’s symptoms are being treated instead of the cause. Unfortunately, this problem will endure until a better remedy can be procured in restoring community safety.
