Health workers at one of the Cape’s busiest hospitals have to manually pump oxygen for ICU patients when load shedding hits.
This is just one of the many challenges raised by public hospital managers and staff, who warned that not being exempt from Eskom’s crippling power cuts could mean the difference between life and death.
Speaking to the Weekend Argus, the CEO of Khayelitsha Hospital, David Binza, said even though the hospital had a generator on site, the delay before it switched on meant staff had to scramble to assist critical patients.
“Patients who are on ventilators and anaesthesia need to be treated manually,” he said.
He said they get their ventilation from an ambu bag that a nurse or doctor will have to pump by hand, while generators typically kick in after one to three minutes.
“Thankfully, we have had no lives lost due to the manual interventions. However, it causes unnecessary panic,” Binza added.
The hospital’s 14 000-litre generator burns through 2 000 litres of diesel during two-and-a-half hours of load shedding. Should the hospital endure two such cycles a day, it costs roughly R104 000.
Cape Town-based emergency medical officer David Goldsack, who used to rotate between three public health facilities in Gugulethu, Delft and Mitchells Plain, said at times procedures had to be halted to wait for generators to kick in.
”There have been times we’ve run out of diesel, which makes it even more disruptive,” he said.
“Sometimes you are standing with a needle halfway through someone’s skin or incubating someone and the next second, absolute darkness.”
Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said the province had spent as much as R53 million since April on fuel, oil and medical gas to keep healthcare facilities running during load shedding.
On Friday, Health Minister Joe Phaala called on provinces to provide a list of hospitals that wanted to be exempt from load shedding.
Mbombo listed 19 hospitals in the province, including Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Mowbray Maternity.
“Most energy-consuming equipment, like X-ray, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy equipment, and clinical equipment used in theatres ICUs and emergency centres are affected by load shedding,” said Mbombo.
The head of internal medicine at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Joburg, Adam Mohamed, has launched a petition calling on government to exempt hospitals from load shedding.
Mohamed said load shedding had put a strain on equipment and patients’ lives, while ministers were not affected.
The petition has so far garnered around 40 000 signatures. ◄ “Streets with ministerial homes do not get load shed for security purposes, but hospitals that are used to save lives do,” Mohamed said in the petition. “Does that mean that the lives of healthy politicians are more important than those of the sick public?”
He said doctors even had to use their cellphone lights to examine patients.
An EMS member also spoke to the Weekend Argus about working during load shedding.
“A call-out to Parkwood or Lavender Hill when there is load shedding, we contact the dispatch to reach out to the caller to come out [of their residence].
“If the person does not answer his or her phone after the third try we cancel the call, so you drive away thinking did that person make it or not? It plays on your conscience.”
Weekend Argus