Fuel hike puts squeeze on ambulance operators

Private ambulance operators at the coast say Wednesday’s fuel price increase adds to costs they cannot recover, with some forced to cut staff, vehicles and community sponsorships to stay open.Diesel went up by N$3 a litre, taking 50ppm diesel to N$30.86 at Walvis Bay, while petrol rose by N$2 to N$28.58. Diesel now costs about N$11 a litre more than it did at the start of the year.The operators are among the main private services at the coast and members of the Erongo Emergency Coordination Group. They say the tariffs medical aid funds pay them have not kept pace.Fanie Redelinghuys of LifeLink said the company’s average monthly fuel bill last year was N$55 000.This year it has averaged an estimated N$69 000 to N$74 000.Wednesday’s increase pushes this month’s bill to about N$84 000 to N$85 500 for the same volume of fuel, roughly 53% to 55% more than last year’s average. Most of its fleet runs on diesel.Redelinghuys said the extra costs could not be recovered from medical aid funds or patients.The Namibian Association of Medical Aid Funds (Namaf) tariff adjustments for 2026, as well as the recently announced weighted average increase of 4.67% for 2027, fell far short of what operators needed.“A tariff adjustment in the low single digits does not adequately cover a fuel cost increase of approximately 50% or more,” he told Namibian Sun.“Sustained increases of this magnitude make it increasingly difficult to absorb the additional costs while continuing to deliver the same level of service,” he explained.Another operator said: “The fuel prices are going up again. That makes it more than a 30% increase on fuel alone, and Namaf is only upping our tariff with 4.3%. How do they think we should stay alive? Do they know what it costs?”Running at a lossMedRescue 24/7 owner Conrad Jacobs, whose company operates nationwide, said some operators had been forced to cut staff and reduce their fleets.“Available funds for past work is not complementing current operations expenditure anymore, so we’re running at losses,” he said.Jacobs said tariffs needed to rise by 14% to 17%, “not again with 4%”.He said Namaf answered to the principal officers of the medical aid funds and looked after their members’ interests, while hospitals were not regulated as strictly as ambulance services.Aubrey Oosthuizen of Code Red Ambulance Service said his monthly fuel bill had risen from a budgeted N$10 000 to N$12 000 to between N$13 000 and N$19 000 since June.“To take out anything from N$3 000 to N$9 000 extra a month for fuel, for a small company like mine, is quite hectic,” he said.Bigger companies, he argued, could spread costs across mine contracts, flights and other income, while smaller operators depend on what they earn each month.“The smaller and medium companies, they take the pressure,” he said.A top-of-the-range heart monitor costs about N$430 000.Oosthuizen said a service would need 255 patients at the lowest basic life support tariff to pay it off, a figure that “basically doubles” once tax, salaries and overheads are paid.“The fuel aspect, yes, it’s a contributing factor. But compared to the rest, it’s quite a small percentage. I think the problem is much deeper than just the fuel issue,” he noted.He said no association represents private ambulance services at Namaf or the health ministry. He added that hospitals and medical aid funds received relief during Covid-19, while ambulance services were not.“In our industry, I think we sucked the hind teat, if I can put it that way,” he said.Wider impactGabriela Teleman’s St Gabriel’s Ambulance Service has operated in Walvis Bay since 2003. It now runs three ambulances with 11 to 12 staff, after its four-wheel-drive ambulance was written off in an accident.“We are forced to cut the sponsorship. We sponsor some events for children and we start cutting this because we cannot afford to do it anymore, because otherwise we need to close,” she said. “I cannot go to the pump to say, sorry sir, but we are emergency service.”Teleman said a disaster was not measured by the number of patients: “The disaster is done by the availability of the services. Do you have an ambulance or not? That is a disaster.”Namaf spokesperson Uatavi Mbai has previously said benchmark tariffs are reference points rather than mandatory rates, and that providers may charge above or below them. In May, Namaf invited providers to request a tariff review if their costs had risen beyond its inflation model.

Fuel hike puts squeeze on ambulance operators

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Namibian Sun 2026-11-06

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Fuel hike puts squeeze on ambulance operators

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Namibian Sun 2026-11-06

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