Despite promises that public hospitals would be exempt from loadshedding, this is not the case for 18 Gauteng hospitals.
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko discloses this in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.
According to Nkomo-Ralehoko, the following hospitals are not exempt from loadshedding:
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 and Disease Hospital
Oral Health Centre (x3) (Wits Oral Health Centre, Sefako Oral Health Centre and Pretoria Oral Health Centre)
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.
Doctors have complained that lives are lost when a critical procedure can’t be done or is delayed when there is no power.
Hospital generators are not designed to cope with frequent power cuts and can only provide emergency backup power that is insufficient for all hospital services.
You would think that the Health MEC would be doing everything in its 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.”
This is not good enough. She needs to do far more to get all the parties involved, including Eskom and national and local governments, to speed up the exemption of all our hospitals.