It will cost the health department about R356m to ensure clinics and hospitals are not affected by load-shedding, said health minister Joe Phaahla in a briefing on the related national state of disaster.
He said his ministry was engaging with the National Treasury and external donors for financial support to acquire much-needed resources for such facilities.
Phaahla welcomed the disaster management regulations, which he said would help to “accelerate the implementation of immediate, necessary, practical interventions to minimise the impact of load-shedding on the provision of essential health services”.
“The state of disaster will enable the government to exempt not only essential health services and infrastructure such as hospitals, but also water treatment plants, from load-shedding. Water supply gets affected in most health facilities as water pumps use electricity,” he said.
“While the situation has not necessarily led to the loss of life, this will bring about necessary intervention in improving the quality of health-service provision at our facilities.”
R356m: that's how much it will cost to keep lights on at hospitals and clinics
Image: 123RF/gorodenkoff
It will cost the health department about R356m to ensure clinics and hospitals are not affected by load-shedding, said health minister Joe Phaahla in a briefing on the related national state of disaster.
He said his ministry was engaging with the National Treasury and external donors for financial support to acquire much-needed resources for such facilities.
Phaahla welcomed the disaster management regulations, which he said would help to “accelerate the implementation of immediate, necessary, practical interventions to minimise the impact of load-shedding on the provision of essential health services”.
“The state of disaster will enable the government to exempt not only essential health services and infrastructure such as hospitals, but also water treatment plants, from load-shedding. Water supply gets affected in most health facilities as water pumps use electricity,” he said.
“While the situation has not necessarily led to the loss of life, this will bring about necessary intervention in improving the quality of health-service provision at our facilities.”
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The low-to-medium interventions include the rollout of generators, solar panels and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems.
The department has forwarded to Eskom the names of 213 hospitals it wants considered for exclusion from load-shedding.
It said it would work with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to quantify the amount of solar energy required and what infrastructure kits (inverters, batteries and so on) would be required for its facilities.
“Unlike solar panels, these kits are lockable and not easy to steal. This will enable the department to map out the rollout implementation programme for the required solar-energy solution for each health facility.
"[The] department will also use this intervention to speed up the implementation of medium- to long-term measures presented by Eskom on the exemption of 46 hospitals in various provinces at an estimated cost of R356,358,000.”
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72 hospitals exempted from load-shedding, including 17 in Gauteng
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