Emergency services failing us

<p>On Tuesday morning (7/3/2017) around 1am my husband went into shock after an acute episode of diarrhoea. I immediately phoned the number on my discovery card for 911 and reported that my husband is unable to breath, he is shaking and is not really responding. The lady on the other side took my details, tried to calm me (by which time as was hysterical as my husband was having a sort of fit and could not talk to me), and reported that an ambulance is on its way. That was 1am. I started phoning friends after that to try and get someone to help me with my three small children who also were hysterical by that time. I tripped our alarm and ADT arrived first at 1h30 with a friend soon after that. By 1h35 I drove my husband who couldn't respond, to hospital WITHOUT any ambulance in sight!!! Do we really have to pay for a service and then after 35 minutes the EMERGENCY ambulance is not even near yet??? I live in Durbanville. I can get to Cape Town city centre in less than 30 minutes at midnight, I can get to Tygerberg hospital in less than 30 minutes at midnight, I could even get to Paarl within 30 minutes!!! Why could the PRIVATE ambulance services not get to me and my husband within 30 minutes at that time of night (WITHOUT TRAFFIC) Discovery Health / 911 Assist ??? I refuse to pay for a service which is not a service when you really need the service!!! The most shocking part is I am sitting here now at 9pm on Wednesday and I just received an SMS stating that "your emergency has been processed with Netcare911 and an ambulance has been dispatched...." ???? is the ambulance going to come now, 40 hours late???? Shocking </p>