Man’s death shows need for Gauteng to fix poor Joburg ambulances 

17 June 2016

I am outraged that a slow response by a Johannesburg emergency ambulance has reportedly led to the death of Klipspruit West resident Daniel Hoker (62). This was after he deteriorated following a 3-day power failure that cut off his oxygen machine.

According to his family, an ambulance was called at 9am on Wednesday this week but only arrived at 1.30pm when he had already died after being driven to hospital in the van of a family friend.

This highlights once again the very poor ambulance service by Johannesburg council which repeatedly lies about providing a world-class response time.

The council claims that more than 80% of Priority 1 calls are responded to within 15 minutes.

I have challenged this claim in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature as I receive many complaints about slow ambulance response times.

Instead of fixing the poor service, the council lies about its response times.

The Gauteng Health Department should step in and ensure that a decent ambulance service is provided to Johannesburg residents.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC of Health, 17 June 2016