A source, who does not wish to be named, told the Herald that Witrand Hospital was without power from Saturday, 1 April, to the evening of Monday, 3 April.
According to the source, this has become the norm for the hospital, as it was not the first time it had had to operate without electricity.”During load shedding, there are no emergency generators, and nurses and patients use flashlights to navigate in the dark,” she explained.
The source added that this had been a problem for two to three years. Before that, a generator turned on automatically but suddenly stopped working, and the problem has yet to be fixed. “We have complained to the management about this problem, but our complaints have fallen on deaf ears, and patients continue to suffer,” she added.
Hospital CEO Moipone Mpolokeng noted that there are always challenges in running an efficient institution of this magnitude, which is why the hospital has emergency, disaster and contingency plans to minimise or eradicate any obstacles. “The general maintenance of the institution is prioritised according to the allocated budget and the support of the Infrastructure Development Technical Services (IDTS),” she said.
Mpolokeng said the management team was notified of the challenge during the daily supervision on Saturday, 1 April. “Teams from the municipality, Eskom and public works were called to the scene and initially suspected cable theft. However, investigations continued the following day and they discovered that some of the equipment destined for the transformer had burnt down, preventing the generators from supplying power to some areas of the hospital,” she said.
During this period, Mpolokeng assured the Herald that the patients’ food was prepared using licensed gas stoves as part of the contingency plan. “The hospital also procured twenty 20-litre hot water urns for warm water for patients, while the major repair and servicing of boilers receive attention,” she said.
Mpolokeng also confirmed that management had ordered hiring an outside service provider to address the emergency on Sunday, 2 April. Therefore, normal supply chain processes do not apply. She added that the internal service provider was on site until 5 April to complete the repairs.
The following is the list of the hospital contingency plans the executive management had put in place:
- Statutory service plans for the generators, either major or minor, carried out by the contracted service provider on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly schedule, according to the service required.
- Procuring 200 rechargeable fluorescent lights for the different areas in the wards.
- Appoint a maintenance manager on standby, together with the public works artisans, for electricity.
- Procuring extra diesel for the generators
- Monitoring compliance with the service level agreed upon by the contracted service provider
- Prioritising internal public works vacancies as part of the critical post for 2023/2024
