Home PodcastJulie Alli Hospitals should be exempt from loadshedding

Hospitals should be exempt from loadshedding

by Salaamedia Intern
Hospitals are being left in the dark and patients are the ones who suffer Photo Pexels

Johannesburg – The country is currently battling with load shedding which is impacting every sector of government. One of the hardest hit is the health sector. It is no secret the health care sector is already strained, and load shedding has made things worse for hospitals.

For the staff at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, it is just another setback they have to deal with after having part of the hospital burn down in a fire. For Prof Adam Mohamed, the Head of Internal Medicine at the hospital, it has put a severe strain on all staff members. Load shedding also means they cannot provide the care that patients need.

“Load shedding for Charlotte Maxeke has been quite an intense burden on the healthcare workers and on patients at that hospital. The level of care that we give is not like other hospitals. When you have load shedding these critical high energy services for example like cardiothoracic surgery, transplantation issues, dialysis, all of this impacts directly on patients.”

Generators not a solution for hospitals

There is always talk that generators can be used as a solution to load shedding. Most businesses and restaurants have turned to generators as a solution to load shedding. The generators at the hospital currently cannot supply electricity throughout the hospital. Just certain wards and it will be far too expensive to have them running every single month, expressed Mohamed.

“I think on average we would use, depending on the degree of load shedding, between 800 to 900 litres of diesel. The costing is anything from five million to eight million rand a month. The question is where does that money come from? It comes from direct patient care money. Number two, these challenges of getting diesel supplies and what we see in the rest of the world diesel is going to become an issue and we’re not going to be unaffected by that. We need to have a plan for the future.”

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Sacrifice must come from those at the top

There have been rumours circulating that ministers and embassies have been exempt and excluded from load shedding. Those living close to ministers say they don’t experience load shedding. For Mohamed, it shouldn’t be the ministers who are exempt from load shedding but rather those facilities that provide for the sick and critically ill.

“If there’s anyone who’s going to be exempted or excluded from load shedding, it must be the vulnerable and those that are critically ill. An old age nursing home that is looking after critically ill patients. I’m not against us coming up with a solution for them but for ministers, a politician to be protected from load shedding, that’s a crime against humanity. It’s a violation from the oath of his office that he’s taking. We need to lead from the front. Sacrifice comes from those at the top first, not from those at the bottom.”

 

The petition that will hopefully bring change

Hospitals are at their limit. Load shedding will be the scissors that cut the thread they hang on. In order to get their voices heard, Mohamed created a petition which has over 41 000 signatures. The petition had enough signatures to catch the attention of the Department of Health and there are signs that talks are positive, said Mohamed

“We had the NOSA (National Occupational Safety Association), South African Medical Association, we had The Health Professional Council of South Africa and the Treatment Action Campaign all talking on the same aspect of healthcare in South Africa. They [the government] have taken notice and we’re going to see a response on Friday to a solution to the load shedding in the healthcare facility. I think it has already made a difference.”

At the moment it seems the government is on board and open to finding a solution. However, Mohamed warned that if such solutions are not found or the petition is ignored, they will not hesitate to take the legal route to get the government to address the issue. For hospitals to function effectively, a solution to load shedding must be found for the healthcare sector.

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