PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Attacks on emergency medical services (EMS) staff while serving the community have increased dramatically over the last few years and have been widely reported in the media.
These attacks range from armed robberies, assaults and general verbal abuse which has a debilitating effect on staff. Service delivery is compromised as a result and management time better served in other matters is consumed by both reactively and proactively dealing with the challenge. So says Stewart Taylor, who is EMS operations manager for the Western Cape department of health.
In a letter from Taylor on 8 January, he states, "Although predominantly a city phenomenon, in the rural areas of our province we experience this challenge as well from time to time."
What has prompted him to write the press release is a recent incident in Plettenberg Bay.
"EMS personnel were accused of stealing a pair of earrings from a patient in their care and to add insult to injury were then referred to, and I quote, 'disgusting savages' and 'rogues'. These comments were posted on a Facebook page by a hotelier in the area and widely distributed prior to being retracted. To the person who posted these malicious allegations I can only comment as follows:
"Madame, do you have any idea of the hurt and anger caused to my staff, their families and the extended communities they live in by your false accusations and derogatory remarks? The effect of this attack on my staff and the demoralising aftermath is the same as if they had been assaulted or verbally abused on scene.
"I can only hope that you have the courage to apologise for your false accusations and irrational tirade against my staff and try and reconcile with them in some way in an attempt to dissuade them from the perceptions that certain sections of the community think they have the right to treat them in this manner."
Taylor concludes by saying this particular Plett incident and the subsequent post also contained allegations of poor service.
"I see this in a different context and although social media is probably not the appropriate platform to express dissatisfaction, we welcome complaints and see them as a way to either address a certain issue or to improve our service to the communities we serve. Despite challenges in the public health services with reference to resources and workload, we aspire to our core value of patient-centeredness and acknowledge the rights of patients to demand an acceptable level of service and to seek redress when it is not provided."
Taylor says that he and his managers and will investigate any complaint against the service and give feedback to those who feel they are not meeting their mandate to communities.
At this point, Taylor does not want to comment any further, stating that he is just putting the message out there very firmly that the public cannot treat emergency personnel badly.
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