Question NW691 to the Minister of Health
11 April 2018 - NW691
Kopane, Ms SP to ask the Minister of Health
Whether (a) his department and/or (b) the Free State department of health conduct regular checks on the Buthelezi Ambulance Service to ensure compliance with the provision of the National Health Act, Act 61 of 2003, specifically with regard to (i) being licensed, (ii) being supervised by a Medical Services Manager, (iii) operating from a specific location, (iv) having a communications system over which to receive service requests, backed by the ability to manage resources, (v) having access to sluice facilities for cleaning contaminated equipment and linen, (vi) having access to washing facilities, including medical-waste traps, (vii) having all the relevant equipment listed in the regulations and (viii) ensuring vehicles are clearly marked as ambulances; if not, in each case, why not; if so, how many checks were conducted in each case since the ambulance service was contracted and what were the findings in each case?
Reply:
Honourable Member, before even checking issues of compliance with the National Health Act, as far as the Buthelezi Ambulance Services in the Free State is concerned, I thought it is important to check first how this service was procured in the first place.
It looks like the procurement of this service breached several Treasury regulations and the PFMA.
On the 8th March 2018 I wrote to the Minister of Finance and requested that the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) in the National Treasury investigate this matter. As soon as I get the outcome of the investigation I will revert back to you. I regard this matter as a scene of a crime and will wait for National Treasury to show direction and take it up from there.
END.