Health
How many ambulances are available at any given time in the Mossel Bay municipal area, (b) where are they stationed, (c) how many trained staff are on the staff complement and (d) what is the (i) reaction times and (ii) challenges?
a. Mossel Bay has two dedicated vehicles and two crews on a 24 hour shift rotation at all times.
b. At our Mossel Bay EMS station.
c. There are 14 EMS personnel members rotating with the four on, four off shift system as well as making provision for holiday leave, sick leave and family responsibility leave.
d. i] Priority 1 response time average is nine minutes [target of 15 minutes]. Priority 2 has an average response time of 38 minutes (non-life threatening cases) and the average mission time is 43 minutes which is excellent considering the low resource volumes as well as the great distances they cover. When assistance is needed for major incidents with large patient volumes, Mossel Bay pulls resources in from neighbouring EMS services such as Oudshoorn, George, Albertinia and Riversdal who in total provide an additional seven vehicles and crews during times of crisis.
ii] The challenges are explained below:
- Distance since an area such as Grootbrak is classified as an urban area which requires a P1 response time of 15 minutes, but Grootbrak is 25 minutes from the nearest EMS Station.
- Another challenge is Inter Facility Transportation [IFT] due to the two vehicles available for Mossel Bay. If one vehicle performs IFTs, then only one vehicle services the entire Mossel Bay.
