A surge in the number of trauma cases in the Eastern Cape since the beginning of December is putting a severe strain on an already stretched provincial healthcare system.
Forty-eight fatal car crashes across the province since the beginning of this month, leaving 60 dead and scores injured, has put further strain on health facilities.
The health department said on Monday the escalation in life threatening trauma cases has forced it to divert healthcare workers from doing other services during the festive season.
Department spokesperson Mkhululi Ndamase said trauma cases, which included car crashes, assaults, stabbings and shootings, “place a significant strain on the already thinly-stretched, hardworking and dedicated healthcare workers”.
“Because trauma cases are often life-threatening we have to prioritise such cases as our mission is to save life and limb first,” Ndamase said.
Because trauma cases are often life-threatening, we have to prioritise such cases as our mission is to save life and limb first.
The latest deadly accident on Eastern Cape roads saw 15 people, including two children, dying in a head-on collision on the N9 outside Graaff-Reinet early on Monday morning.
The accident involved an SUV with six occupants and a fully loaded minibus taxi travelling from the Western Cape to the province.
Provincial transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose said all six occupants of the SUV had died on the scene and nine passengers from the minibus taxi, including two children, aged six and seven perished.
Binqose said the crash scene was still active at midday on Monday with emergency rescue personnel working “to save as many lives as possible”.
This accident came shortly after another head-on collision between a van and a sedan on the R61 in Bizana late on Sunday claimed the lives of three people, with two others suffering serious injuries.
Two women and a male driver died in that crash, Binqose said.
On one of the province’s most notorious roads, the N2 between East London and Mthatha, a number of accidents had been reported at the weekend, the latest on Monday morning involving three vehicles and resulting in the death of one person and severe injuries to seven others.
Other serious accidents at the weekend include a minibus taxi that overturned near Mhlontlo while carrying a number of soccer players and a taxi which overturned between Ngcobo and Cofimvaba, killing three people.
Binqose said three other people had died near Butterworth when the taxi they were travelling in overturned, and one person had died in an accident near Chintsa where the jaws-of-life had to be used to free the injured.
The provincial government was calling for extra vigilance as the festive season heated up, he said.
“The department is urging road users and motorists in particular to continue to be extra-vigilant as the volume of traffic on some of the province’s roads is expected to increase sharply.”
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