Load shedding currently a bigger concern than lack of oxygen

Load shedding could mean death for scores of state outpatients who are dependent on oxygen concentrators to stay alive, amid concerns earlier this week over the slow procurement of oxygen delivery equipment at government hospitals.

In Riverlea, an impoverished community outside Johannesburg, ridden by air pollution and toxic water due to several abandoned gold mines in its surrounds, patients dependent on respirators can be found around every block. Many of these patients are elderly and of scant means. They suffer from various illnesses, including silicosis and are also affected by Apartheid -era asbestos infrastructure in their houses.

“The most serious problem is the respiratory problems we have been having. Most of the people are getting the oxygen but the problem is the supply. Like now we are having load shedding at the moment. So once there is load shedding, these guys will need an extra supply,” explains Charles van der Merwe, a community activist working with the Benchmarks Foundation.

Van der Merwe regularly checks on the 16 patients within his 5 kilometre radius to make sure they don’t run out of oxygen, which is delivered regularly in tanks. These specific tanks are used when their respirators are not plugged into a power source, and are able to hold patients over in short bouts during power outages.

Illegal connections and cable theft had already made planned and unplanned outages a regular occurrence over the lockdown period. Now that load shedding has made its return in earnest since last week, the danger was ever more imminent.

“With load shedding actually I can stay without this oxygen for about an hour or two hours, after that I have to have oxygen. So the tank is coming in handy there for the extra two hours whenever load shedding occurs,” explains 66-year old Jacob Ismail.

“Three hours on, three hours off,” he says, explaining how often he is hooked up to the concentrator, a portable home devices used to extract oxygen from the environment.

“But during the night I have to sleep with it. That is the time when I really need the oxygen. That is why the tank must come in, that is why we want to know if it’s empty can they refill it immediately?”

Earlier this week, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize raised concerns that Gauteng, the Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape may be running low on the product, as hospitals and beds filled up in the Covid-19 hotspot provinces. This follows concerns raised by doctors at the field hospital at Nasrec, and reports of low oxygen pressure at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg.

But according to Vital Aire, the South African subsidiary of multinational,  Aire Liquide, South Africa is not running short on medical oxygen.

In replies to The Citizen’s questions on how the industry was responding to the high demand, a company spokesperson wrote, “VitalAire South Africa can confirm that the needs of State patients under home oxygen therapy in Riverlea have been met.”

Regarding the supply of oxygen to hospitals, the company says it has noted some increases in consumption in some of its hospital customers, first in the Western Cape, then in the Eastern Cape, and now in Gauteng. There was, however,  no anticipated shortage of medical oxygen during the pandemic, they insisted.

“Our interactions with the governmental institutions and hospitals have been fruitful so far. The Department of Health has looked at various scenarios of response and made sure the industry would be able to answer all of them. The safety of patients remains the absolute priority.”

Concerns remain that government is not acting fast enough to procure enough ventilation equipment as Covid-19 cases requiring critical care continue to rise.

“Afrox says quite clearly they’re  not short of oxygen they just haven’t been asked for it. Oxygen is available but how do you get it to the sick patients that  is the main thing. So you have to obviously be transported to the right way. The main way would be piped oxygen delivered to the bed. You would need pipes to convey the oxygen to the ward and preferably to each bed,’ said DA Member of the Provincial Legislature, Jack Bloom.

“The problem at Nasrec is that they didn’t put in the pipes to convey the oxygen, so now they are desperately making up for lost time and putting in the pipes. The doctors on their own volition, which was very nice of them, made an appeal for what is called an oxygen concentrator so those are portable ones. It takes the air in the room and concentrates it into oxygen and makes it available as pure oxygen,”  Bloom explained.

Earlier this week, United States Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks announced a R59 million aid package to assist with Covid-19. Through the  U.S. Agency for International Development, the foreign government would be working with the national health department to help South African oxygen manufacturers,  Afrox (Pyt) Ltd. and Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions South Africa, and others to increase their production by as much as eight times to meet COVID-19 needs.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.