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METRO ambulance staff have had enough of being robbed by the the communities they serve and say they may not be offering their services to them in future. This, after two incidents of theft recently left volunteer staff without medical equipment to treat emergency patients.

A volunteer worker at Metro's Pinelands base went to assist an elderly woman who was having a heart attack in Parkwood in the greater Grassy Park area. While she was attending to her patient, she lost her medical supplies and personal belongings when thieves gained access to the locked ambulance - apparently without using force - outside the patient's home.

Cynthia Bale told People's Post that she took just eight minutes to get the patient to the ambulance, but that was enough time for the culprits to make off with all the medical equipment needed to treat her.

Much of the supplies are paid for by the workers out of their own pockets and are not insured. In the bag were oxygen masks, blood sugar tests, syringes and expensive medication, as well as a respirator worth R60 000 which will not be replaced.

As a result, the patient could not be taken to Victoria Hospital as planned, but had to be rushed to the Retreat Day Hospital.

"She could have died," said a frustrated Cynthia. "And what these people don?t seem to realise is that one day, and maybe sooner than they think, they or their loved ones may need help, but what will we treat them with? Sooner or later these thieves will be directly responsible for someone's death."

This is the second case of theft suffered by the Pinelands metro ambulances in less than a week, and now Provincial Assistant-Director, Pumzile Papu, is threatening to withdraw the ambulance service from areas where these losses are becoming a regular occurrence. "If this is the way we are going to be treated by certain communities, we will simply not operate in those areas."

Says Bale: "It's a real dilemma for us, because this is our calling, this is what we do. But we can't do it without equipment and we can't afford to keep replacing it. We go out to help people anywhere 24 hours a day, working entire weekends at a time, and this is how we are repaid for our dedication. It's extremely dispiriting."

We don"t want to exclude a community, but we need to think of all the people of Cape Town who may need our help. We cannot continue servicing communities that consistently put the greater community at risk." The metropole's coordinator for health and safety, Greg Whittaker, said he believes the Parkwood community knows who the culprits are, but are either unwilling or too scared to speak up.'

"We are appealing to people who know where these items are to contact their local police station or phone us, no questions asked."

But Grassy Park police challenge Metro's threat to discontinue their services in the area. They say that while the incidents were very unfortunate, the ambulance service cannot simply decide to withdraw their services.

Says station commissioner Senior Superintendent Christopher Jones: "Because of one or two people everybody is now going to suffer. This is simply not fair."

He adds that the same thing happens to the police. "In the CPF meeting I always say that the police are here to serve the community, but despite this community members still vandalise the police vehicles. Nonetheless, we still have an obligation to serve the people."

He adds that if ever Metro is called out to the Parkwood area, they should not hesitate to phone the police to come out and assist them.

Ward councillor George March says he does not support crime, but feels strongly that the Metro Ambulance Service cannot discontinue their service to the community of Parkwood despite what has happened.

Head of the Cape Metro Emergency Medical Services, Dr Cleeve Robertson, , agreed that it would not be ethical to turn away emergency cases from particular areas unless the staff's lives were endangered.

"I know they are short of equipment even without being robbed. That's just one of the challenges we must face. Intentions to stop serving certain areas have not been communicated to me and I certainly will not authorise such action."

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