LUSIKISIKI ‘€“ About 40 patients were injured when the bus transporting them to the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha crashed last month and according to witness reports, rolled three times.

A patient who was involved in the accident, told OurHealth that the hospital bus (a 35-seater Iveco bus) was carrying approximately 40 patients, including children. The bus was travelling along the R61 between Ntlaza and Mthatha in the early hours of September 25 when the driver swerved to avoid two cows in the road and lost control of the vehicle. The bus apparently rolled three times.

‘€œSome people fell out of the broken windows and were injured,’€ said the patient who also complained about the speed the bus was travelling. She preferred to remain anonymous.

The injured were taken by ambulances to the nearby St Barnabas hospital in Libode for treatment. One of the injured was an 11-year-old boy, Aluncedo Kupiso, who sustained injuries to his back. His mother, Ndileka Kupiso, told OurHealth that: “The minibus was travelling at high speed and we asked him to drop the speed, but he did not respond”.

“The driver told me and another woman not to lay charges against him because it is only the owner of the vehicle who is supposed to claim [take legal action against the driver],” said a concerned Kupiso, adding that the driver had been negligent.

A nurse at St Barnabas hospital also told OurHealth that the accident may have been caused by high speed.

There has been an outcry over the shortage of ambulances in the Eastern Cape, especially in remote areas. The Eastern Cape MEC for transport, Thandiswa Marawu, recently announced that the department has purchased 20 new ambulances that were due for delivery by the end of September. In total the department aims to acquire 250 ambulances to reduce the current shortage.

“(The) Health department lacks political will when it comes to Emergency Services because 250 ambulances could not cover the whole province,’€ said Kholiswa Sondzaba a community monitor with the Treatment Action Campaign.

Recently the TAC and Centre for Economic Governance and AIDS in Africa (CEGAA) held a public hearing in Lusikisiki where community members complained about the health services, including the shortage of ambulances. CEGAA has partnered with TAC and piloted a health budget, monitoring and expenditure tracking (BMET) project in the Eastern Cape (Lusikisiki) and KwaZulu-Natal (Mgungundlovu).

The Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital has not responded to any of OurHealth’s requests for comment on the accident.