Patients wait four hours for an ambulance in rural KwaZulu-Natal

Wheelchairs lined up in the casualty ward at Nquthu hospital. Photo: Bongane Motaung

People living in the rural villages around Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, say they have to wait hours for an ambulance during a medical emergency.

Senior officials at the two main hospitals in the area told GroundUp that ambulances operate from Empangeni, near Richards Bay.

Empangeni is 130km away from Nkandla hospital and 150km from Ekombe hospital – at least a three-hour drive. To reach patients in the area’s rural villages, ambulances need to travel further on badly maintained dirt roads.

Dr Mbhekeseni Zungu, the CEO of Ekombe Hospital, told GroundUp that he sometimes fetches patients in his own car because ambulances are unreliable.

The hospital has one ambulance allocated to it, but the vehicle remains parked in Empangeni when it’s not in use.

“In cases of emergency, we hire vans instead of waiting hours for an ambulance,” says Doreen Ndebele, a pensioner from Tsamlomo village. It costs about R700 for a private trip to the hospital.

Thokozane Mkhize from Mfongisi village, which is 20km from Ekombe hospital, says his partner had to give birth at home because the ambulance did not arrive on time.

It was revealed by the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in September that across the whole province, there were 480 ambulances, of which only 177 were operational.

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health did not respond to questions despite numerous follow-ups.

Ambulances navigate dirt roads to reach villages in Nkandla.

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