HOSPERSA CALLS FOR URGENT NATIONAL INTERVENTION ON PARAMEDICS ATTACKS

The Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) condemns the recent attack on members in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Gauteng. The recent spate of attacks on paramedics calls for urgent national intervention from the politicians to address this challenge. An urgent solution must be found to stop this scourge as there have been more than 100 reported cases in 2016 and the number of attacks is rising.

The latest reported incident occurred on Saturday the 22nd of April 2017 when paramedics returning to Cullinan EMS base were shot at while they were busy trying to attend to a patient lying on the side of the road at the entrance to Refilwe township, east of Pretoria. Shots were fired at the direction of the ambulance forcing the paramedics to abandon the patient and the ambulance and escape on foot. It is further reported that at the time, three other people were shot, two fatally and declared dead on the scene. ”It is unacceptable that EMS (Emergency Medical Services) members must operate in these conditions,” said Hospersa General Secretary Noel Desfontaines. Hospersa has consistently argued that the choice to stop ambulance services is not an easy one to make but “our members have the right to refuse to work in such unsafe conditions,“ said Desfontaines.

Hospersa wants urgent national intervention from the politicians in order to find a solution for the protection of their members when serving the community claiming that further attacks could lead to paralysis of the service and an injustice to the communities it is intended to service. “It is irresponsible to expect our members to work under such unsafe conditions,” concluded Desfontaines.