In his budget speech, MEC for Health in the North West, Madoda Sambatha, announced that the department has procured 50 ambulances at a cost of R46 million. He said that 21 ambulances were distributed in December 2021 and the remaining were delivered in March 2022. Sambatha however acknowledged that the current fleet which consist of 138 ambulances is not sufficient to service the entire North West population. Sambatha said that the department is pursuing an alternative procurement model of a full maintenance lease to further ensure faster and improved ambulance coverage and meet national norms which require the province to have 350 additional ambulances.

“These vehicles includes those fitted with four motion wheel drive for rural response so that there is no rural area in our province that an ambulance cannot reach. It is not our responsibility to do roads, it is our responsibility to respond to patients. We must make all means to go to patients, irrespective of the terrain of roads because we respond to patients, not constructing roads,” said Sambatha.

According to him, with the leasing model, the department will be able to meet the national norm that require the province to oncrease its red fleet to 350 within two to three years, as opposed to the seven year period it would have taken if the department had followed a more traditional procurement model. Sambatha also said that the department has appointed 46 EMS officials in the management and production positions in the past financial year.

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