“The ongoing challenge of both staff and vehicle shortages” have contributed to a situation in which “recorded emergency ambulance response times have plummeted in Gauteng”.While “77% of all Priority 1 (P1) calls were responded to within 15 minutes in urban areas last year”‚ the figure for 2016 is 54%”.The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Jack Bloom said this information was “revealed in the Gauteng Health Department's First Quarter Report‚ which was recently tabled in the Gauteng Legislature and covers the April to June period”.A P1 case is a critically ill or injured person requiring urgent attention to save his or her life.“I am very concerned about the poor ambulance response times in Gauteng and the shortage of working ambulances even though the budget is typically underspent‚” Bloom said‚ noting that only “R199-million – or 17% - of the R1.2 billion Emergency Medical Services budget for 2016/17 had been spent by the end of June”.“This leads to tragedies like the ambulance that did not arrive to pick up the late Mandoza in Soweto three hours after it was called.”Bloom said the health department's report had said “a large majority of P1 calls are delayed due to location of dispatch points in relation to pick up points and the districts such as City of Johannesburg‚ City of Tshwane and Sedibeng are often affected”.He said the municipalities his party now runs “in Gauteng will need to work with the provincial health department to ensure that ambulances reach 80% of all Priority 1 emergency patients within 15 minutes‚ which is the world-class standard”. – TMG Digital..