Last month, the National Department of Health announced that the country’s leading hospitals would be exempted from load shedding.
It was stated that the number of hospitals that would be removed from the load-shedding schedule across the country would go from 37 to 72 since the last public announcement by Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahl, in September this year.
According to the department’s updated list, at least 17 hospitals are located in Gauteng, 15 in KwaZulu-Natal, 14 in the Free State, 10 in Limpopo, seven in the Eastern Cape, and four each in Mpumalanga and the Western Cape.
However, in Gauteng it would seem all the hospitals that were put on the list are still experiencing rolling blackouts amid the stage-2 power cuts currently being experienced across the country.
According to the DA’s Gauteng shadow minister of health, Jack Bloom, some of the hospitals still affected by power cuts include Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Tembisa Hospital, Edenvale Hospital, Leratong Hospital, Pholosong Hospital, Far East Rand Hospital, Mamelodi Regional Hospital, Dr Yusuf Dadoo Hospital, South Rand Hospital, Bertha Gxowa Hospital, Heidelberg Hospital, Carletonville Hospital, Bheki Mlangeni Hospital, Sterkfontein Hospital, Tshwane Rehab Centre, Cullinan Rehab Centre, Sizwe Tropical Disease Hospital, Wits Oral Health Centre, Sefako Oral Health Centre, and Pretoria Oral Health Centre.
Bloom said this had been revealed to him by Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko in a written reply to his questions in the Gauteng legislature.
This comes after the Gauteng Health Department promised that hospitals would be exempted from load shedding.
“Despite promises that public hospitals would be exempt from load-shedding, this is not the case for 18 Gauteng hospitals. This means that half of the province’s 36 public hospitals suffer from electricity cuts that cause the cancellation of hundreds of operations and the disruption of other medical procedures as well,” Bloom said.
Bloom pointed out that doctors had also complained about the issue of load shedding, saying that lives were lost when a critical procedure could not be done or was delayed when there was no power.
"Hospital generators are not designed to cope with frequent power cuts and can only provide emergency back-up power that is insufficient for all hospital services.
"You would think that the health MEC would be doing everything in her power to speed up the exemption process, but all she says is that her department is “still in the process of negotiating with the relevant authority”, Bloom added.
The Star