Ambulance scandal rocks Bay
By Shaun Gillham
"MAFIA-LIKE” private ambulance services are running rampant in Nelson Mandela Bay, putting patients’ lives at risk in a bid to beat their growing competition.
A Weekend Post investigation into the Emergency Medical Services industry has revealed claims that:
* Some medics purposely over-treat patients at accident scenes, as well as at work and home emergencies, so patients or their medical aid schemes are charged significantly more
* Ambulance personnel are tipped off by tow-truck drivers and members of perlemoen poaching syndicates who illegally scan police radio frequencies in exchange for kick-backs from the EMS
* Tow-truck drivers hide patients in their trucks until their "preferred” EMS team arrives, preventing other ambulance companies that arrive first from treating the patients
* Some medics offer and carry out medical services they are not qualified or authorised to administer
* Unqualified paramedics often administer drugs they are not authorised to administer
* Some companies send unqualified rapid response personnel to accidents to "claim the scene” until their ambulance arrives, despite that fact that qualified medics from another company may get to the scene first
* A number of local EMS ambulances are converted vehicles and not authorised to operate as ambulances
* Some industry inspectors are corrupt and have tried to bribe complainants
* Several EMS ambulances do not carry the required medical equipment to deliver the level of services and assistance they claim to carry.
Launching a scathing attack on rogue elements in the region’s emergency medical services, CompSol Relay chief executive officer Fritz Luttich sent a letter to statutory medical body, the Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA), calling for them to "clean up the industry” and fingering three private ambulance companies.
"There was an accident involving a furniture removal company truck. Seven people were injured and, according to my staff, the seven were all squashed into one ambulance.
"There are industry rules and regulations and other measures in place to ensure the safety of patients and the public. The public needs to be aware that there are those who operate without regard for patients or the profession and the public needs to know what to look out for, should they find themselves in an emergency situation.
Luttich said patients should request to see the HPCSA card each medical worker or paramedic should have in their possession, which would state what service the worker was qualified to render.
Gardmed operations manager Dirk Kunz confirmed there were a number of problems which needed to be addressed and named "over- treating towards over-charging” and dangerous and reckless driving as being among his concerns.
Kunz confirmed the local EMS market was over-saturated with service providers and beset with infighting, and said the EMS industry’s ties to tow-truck companies "was part of the industry”.
"Yes, they scan the radios, but they are not all bad and some have played important roles. They get an emergency vehicle to an accident scene very fast, which helps to save lives.
Kunz said although his company’s business was based primarily on inter-hospital transfers, he knew of deaths caused by reckless driving by rapid response paramedics.
Kunz acknowledged that ambulances were often overloaded with patients and that injured people were often ignored or left untreated at accident scenes if they did not have medical aid or were not eligible to claim from the government.
He also confirmed that some services dispatched unqualified paramedics to scenes simply to secure them before qualified personnel arrived.
Meanwhile, the HPCSA has vowed to investigate the allegations.
"The HPCSA is extremely concerned about these reports and will not tolerate corruption, fraud, over-charging, practitioners practising outside their scope, or collusion from any practitioner under its ambit,” said HPCSA chairman
of the Professional Board for Emergency Care, Raveen Naidoo.
While he could not confirm receipt of Luttich’s letter of complaint, he said the board had in the past received complaints about staff being instructed to "upgrade” emergency calls in order to claim more from medical aids as well as complaints that practitioners were administering one drug and then claiming another drug from medical aids.
Encouraging anyone with information regarding corruption in the industry to lay a formal charge, Naidoo said the HPCSA would not tolerate unprofessional or unethical conduct.
"Patients are also coerced into requesting higher intervention or medication than necessary. The public should be aware of their rights, and especially in emergency situations the patient and/or their family has the right to be informed about their treatment and should scrutinise their medical bills.”
This is a shortened version of an article that appeared in the print edition of the Weekend Post on Saturday, October 6, 2012.
