Hospitals cancel surgeries due to load shedding

Water supplies to hospitals being interrupted as a result of load shedding has forced medical authorities to cancel elective surgeries in Limpopo and Gauteng.

The ongoing load shedding which is seeing power outages of up to four hours a day is putting lives at risk across South African hospitals every day.

According to the SABC, doctors are even using the light from mobile phones and rechargeable lighting devices to carry out their duties during blackouts.

Water woes

Speaking to the SABC, Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba told the broadcaster: “We were forced to come up with the painful decision that electives, or planned operations that were supposed to have been performed, especially in our biggest hospital, the tertiary hospital which is Pietersburg, we had to postpone all of them and focus on the emergencies.

“The impact of load shedding has led into a situation wherein water supply is completely disrupted. We’re now dependent on the water tankers from the municipality.”

Water supplies have been affected in hospitals and clinics across the province that rely on electric pumps to carry water to the different outlets. Load shedding also affects number of patient care equipment, such as refrigeration and air conditioners for theatres which is needed to for sanitation purposes. It also affects medical gases and freezers for patient nutrition, medicine and morgues.

Meanwhile, in Gauteng, power cuts at stage 4 and 5 have cost Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital over R3.4 million in diesel costs this year alone.

The hospital uses around 20 generators with most being allocated to emergency operations. The medical centre has also been postponing or cancelling elective surgeries.

The DA’s Jack Bloom argued that with the high cost of running generators during hospital operations and given that there were lives that were at risk here, hospitals should be exempt from the load shedding schedule.

Exempt health facilities from load shedding

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla said the Department of Health is exploring its options to ensure the country’s health facilities are not severely affected by the intermittent bouts of load shedding implemented by Eskom.

Phaahla responded to calls by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and other organisations for government to exempt all hospitals from the rolling blackouts.

The minister said he had been concerned for some time about the protracted power outages on health facilities, hoping that the situation would be improved.

But he said the power cuts had gotten worse over time and negatively impacted the provision of health care services across the country.