Cape Town - Provincial Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo has condemned violent attacks on paramedics after an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) crew was robbed at gunpoint in Khayelitsha on Tuesday.
Two EMS paramedics who had been responding to an emergency call in Walter Sisulu Drive in Harare, Khayelitsha, were robbed of their cellphones.
EMS spokesman Robert Daniels said the robbery occurred on Tuesday at about 8am. He said the paramedics had not been harmed.
However, police spokesman FC van Wyk could not confirm this.
Daniels said it was the first reported case this month.
“What worries me is that it is the ordinary community member, the poor, who suffer when such things happen because now this will mean that paramedics need to start at police stations to seek an escort van before they head of to the scene.
“And knowing that it is the festive season, police are busy and paramedics will be forced to wait for the police before they go to save lives,” he said.
Mbombo urged community members to help the police by giving them information that would lead to the arrest of those who attacked emergency-services personnel.
“We need the community to report these people to the police as these attacks will affect them negatively.
“To us, the health department, the safety of our staff and paramedics is a priority.”
Three months ago, paramedics protested after more than 60 of them had been attacked when responding to calls. Garth Botha, of the Western Cape EMS, described an attack on him and his partner as the “worst night shift as a medic”.
He posted on Facebook, stating they
had been attacked by about 10 knife-
wielding men who wanted to get to the patient.
“I think their intention was to kill him They were like animals trying to break down the doors of the ambulance.
“They even broke one of the side windows by stabbing through it. Luckily we could get away.”