On Now
Weekdays 12:00 - 15:00
At Lunch Pulane
NEXT: 15:00 - 18:00 The Joyride with Nico, Nikki, Kayla and JayBee
Listen Live Streams

Local News

FS Health urged to fast-track appointment of paramedics

───   OLEBOGENG MOTSE 17:20 Mon, 06 Aug 2018

FS Health urged to fast-track appointment of paramedics | News Article
Photo: Supplied

Parliament’s Select Committee on Social Services urges the Free State Health Department to fast-track the recruitment of 220 paramedics.


This as the department informed the committee during its oversight visit last week, that it is planning on procuring 110 ambulances in total. Sixty of these have already been ordered to be delivered in mid-September. 

Committee Chairperson, Cathrine Dlamini, told OFM News last week that the department was struggling to hire qualified paramedics, even though new ambulances had been procured. Dlamini says the department should not wait for all the 60 ambulances to be delivered to the state garage in September for them to start getting them to work. 

She says the long waiting times for ambulances in the province was of great concern to the committee and the ambulances should, therefore, be made functional as soon as they are delivered.

The National Council of Provinces will return to the Free State in late August, to give residents feedback on progress made since its Taking Parliament to the People programme in 2017.

This recommendation comes in the midst of complaints from paramedics in the province regarding poor working conditions, specifically a lack of resources and ill-equipped ambulances. 

The paramedics who are from the Naledi Local Municipality, say that they have had to buy basic equipment using their own money in order to carry out their duties adequately.


OFM News

@ 2024 OFM - All rights reserved Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | We Use Cookies - OFM is a division of Central Media Group (PTY) LTD.