Nelson Mandela Bay Emergency Medical Services district manager Brenhan Metune says he is disturbed by calls from the SA Emergency Practitioners Union for ambulance crews to carry firearms while on duty during the festive season.
He said this would, in fact, put the ambulance crews more at risk.
“We distance ourselves from their stance on the matter,” he said.
“The safety of our staff is of paramount importance to us and every attempt is made to address this tragic situation.
“Emergency care practitioners put their lives at risk every day to provide a service to communities.
“However, through multiple stakeholder engagements that included the police, metro police, traffic department, councillors, the department of justice and communities at large, we have curbed these attacks.”
He said the number of attacks in the city had dropped from 20 in 2017 to 15 in 2018.
“The management of EMS in Nelson Mandela Bay believes that carrying firearms while on duty will negatively affect the image of the profession and further place their lives at risk as criminals will directly seek them out for these firearms,” he said.
“We are requesting communities to take ownership of their ambulances and the crews’ safety as any delay in services will adversely affect the health and mortality of their own families,” he said.
The Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) has expressed shock and dismay at calls for ambulance crews to arm themselves, in response to several attacks on ambulances countrywide.
Hospersa general secretary Noel Desfontaines said it was against ambulance crews arming themselves.
“It is not only against the rules of the board but we also don’t believe it is proper for medics to be armed,” he said.
“We believe it would place them at a greater risk.
“Our members will not be carrying firearms,” he said.
His comments followed from the standoff that developed between an emergency workers’ union and the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), over the controversial call for crews to arm themselves when attending to incidents during the festive season.
The call was made by the SA Emergency Personnel Union’s Mpho Mpogeng, who said it was not calling for ambulance crews to “randomly start shooting at people” but wanted them to be armed so that they could protect themselves if they were in trouble.
The union’s leaders insisted that “a few ambulance crews” had armed themselves.
Metune said shift leaders were ensuring that no staff carried firearms.
“Our staff members feel very apprehensive that [the union] has made this public without consultation as not all staff belong to [the union].
“This further jeopardises their safety and compromises the work we have done to attempt to address the situation.”