The Western Cape’s health department is stepping up protective measures for emergency medical services (EMS) personnel by equipping them with body cameras (bodycams).
This comes amid a spike in criminal attacks against EMS staff in the province, with the provincial health department saying 45 more attacks have been recorded in 2020 compared to 2019.
Popularly used by police and other law enforcement organisations across the globe, a bodycam is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system.
In the Western Cape, the health department says it will equip EMS staff with 1 000 of these devices.
Democratic Alliance MPP Wendy Philander says the party welcomes the move, stating: “The provincial Department of Health’s acquisition of the bodycams will feature GPS and panic button features as part of its technological safety plan to support emergency workers. This kind of equipment is used internationally to monitor calls from a central location to provide support to emergency workers who may be at risk.
“I have submitted parliamentary questions to provincial health minister Nomafrench Mbombo regarding alternative support towards ongoing involvement of security services to escort EMS staff, as well as trauma counselling available to them as part of a long-term strategy.”
According to Philander, on average, EMS workers respond to thousands of cases, particularly over weekends in the Western Cape.
In one of the latest attacks this year, it was proven that such criminality is opportunistic, after it was discovered that a call to the service centre was a hoax.
Philander states: “Paramedics and the EMS service are invaluable to communities, especially where individuals are unable to seek urgent medical assistance on their own.
“The call to behavioural change in communities towards our paramedics is not enough, as these men and women continue to put their lives at risk. But we do plead with communities to remain vigilant, to cooperate with emergency staff, and report incidents at their nearest police station.”
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