Ambulances & planned patient transport

TAC considers the time it takes for ambulances to arrive to be morally unacceptable. Too often ambulances take many hours to arrive, if they arrive at all. Critically ill patients and people with pregnancy complications are forced to wait, or to hire private transport at prices they cannot afford to take them to the nearest hospital. This leads to avoidable deaths in some instances. The reliability, availability and quality of emergency medical services must be urgently improved in the country.

Planned patient transport systems are also in crisis — impacting disproportionally on the most vulnerable and those in poor and rural settings. People in rural communities have a particularly difficult time accessing healthcare services — only made worse when transport is not available. In rural areas, many people must walk long distances to clinics and hospitals, or forfeit appointments, which may have long term consequences on their health, or on HIV treatment adherence and TB treatment completion rates.