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Shortage of ambulances at the weekend

12:00 11/08/2014

There are not enough ambulances available during the weekend in Belgium, according to Antwerp emergency doctor Kevin Vereecken. The shortage means that it may take longer before help arrives at the scene of an emergency, which “could cost lives," Vereecken told Het Gazet van Antwerpen.

"Due to budget cuts, hospitals are increasingly outsourcing their ambulance services to private companies, which in turn rely on paramedics who are willing to jump in at the weekend," said Vereecken. "Those are harder and harder to find because the job is fiscally unattractive.”

Jan Christiaen, president of the Belgian Association of Ambulance Services (BBA), refers in particular to the low maximum rates. "We would have to charge three times more in order to function properly. Those figures are known, but no one wants to look at them."

Written by Robyn Boyle