Paramedics respond to 5 348 incidents during new year’s weekend

It has been a busy December and end-of-year weekend for the Western Cape Government Health's Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as they work tirelessly to provide essential first responder assistance, transport clients to healthcare facilities, and save people’s lives. For the period 1 December 2021 – 2 January 2022, the EMS attended to 43 600 medical-related incidents, 11 453 trauma cases, 1 973 road traffic incidents, and 204 fires in the Western Cape. A total of 6 479 inter-facility transport trips were made to ensure that clients received the care they needed in a time-efficient and safe manner.

This New Year’s weekend, the EMS responded to 5 348 incidents in the province, down from 1 243 incidents the previous long Christmas weekend. A total of 44% of this weekend’s incidents occurred in the Cape Metro region. The EMS also responded to 122 road traffic incidents, 55 fewer than the previous weekend. This included 39 pedestrians which accounts for 32% of this weekend road traffic incidents. There were also two search and rescue incidents in Rooi-Els Bay and Table Mountain respectively.

Ambulance crews were escorted by the South African Police Service (SAPS) to attend to 50 incidents in Beacon Valley, 39 in Tafelsig, 26 in Hanover Park and 10 in Chicago, Paarl. The EMS would like to thank the police for their efforts in keeping the paramedics safe during the end-of-year weekend.

The top five incident types for the weekend included non-cardiac pain (883) weapon assault (771) respiratory complaints (453), physical assault (31), and obstetric or gynaecological complaints (310).
 

EMS would like to thank its many partners for their support with pre-hospital emergency medical services during the holiday period, such as SAPS, Traffic Law Enforcement, WCG Air Mercy Services, Private Ambulance Services, Disaster Management, Fire Department, Sea Rescue (NSRI), Forensic Pathology Services and other voluntary organisations.