Cape Town - Paramedics are increasingly coming under attack when responding to emergencies with many saying they fear for their lives.
Ebrahim Benjamin, 47, who works for Melomed24, the hospital chain’s ambulance service, said he and his colleague were attacked in Athlone on Friday night.
“When the incident happened on Friday I was busy inspecting the vehicle at the back and my colleague was alone in the front.
“I heard him shout “Sh*t what is happening now, when I went to look, I heard a window smashing. The glass was all over the front, we don’t even know what they used to smash the window but it was something strong.
“One of the guys pulled on the front passenger door, which was locked but they could not get inside,” said Benjamin
Fellow paramedic, Joseph Mfazwe, who has been working at the hospital for 11 years said he has experienced two attacks in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain over the past three years.
“The worst incident I will never forget, is when we were in Mitchells Plain to attend to a patient. It was at midnight when a group of boys aged between 16 and 18 years threw bricks and stones at our vehicle. My colleague was still busy with a patient at the back of the vehicle and I was alone in the front. Luckily we managed to drive off before they robbed us,” said Mfazwe.
EMS spokesperson, Robert Daniels, said there were about 46 crime related incidents involving ambulances and paramedics between January and August last year – including assault, verbal abuse, hijacking, theft, and armed robbery.
“My plea to the Western Cape communities is for their assistance in looking after our assets which include both our facilities and EMS staff, because mostly our EMS crew go to dangerous areas where they are senselessly attacked. To ensure safety of our staff we currently work with SAPS to escort ambulances into known dangerous areas,” said Daniels.
Melomed ambulance manager, Salaama Joseph, said: “We are now planning to have a meeting with the Department of Health and Department of Safety, we need to get a way forward on these incidents, because it is getting out of hand now.
“It seems like we are targeted everywhere. Sadly we are still going to the communities because there are people who really needs our help out there.
“We usually have a female and a male to work a day shift and a night shift, but after so many incident we changed our roster, most of the males are working night shifts because we know females are not safe out there,” said Joseph.