Nearly 50 state hospitals grappling with the compounding effects of load-shedding will have cables installed that will exempt them from rolling blackouts, at a cost of R350m, the health minister has confirmed.
Intensified power cuts have wreaked havoc on the already overburdened public health system, including water supply challenges because of nonfunctioning pumps. In a post-state of the nation address media briefing by the social cluster on Sunday, health minister Joe Phaahla said while some progress was made initially to ensure health facilities are freed from load-shedding, investigations by the department revealed that the necessary infrastructure is lacking for dozens of such facilities.
“We are at a stage where both Eskom and also the municipalities, which are electricity distributors, have indicated certain infrastructure which needs to be inserted in terms of cables to bypass where the supply of the health facility is strongly linked with the local supply of residential and business areas,” the minister said. “They’ve given us a number of hospitals which we see as a priority.
“In the next financial year we are looking at using our own infrastructure fund to work with those electricity distribution agencies, whether it be Eskom or the local municipalities to procure those additional cables, from our infrastructure grant.”
According to the department of health, 46 hospitals across the country need cable installation. So far, 76 hospitals have been exempted, and the ministry said those not exempted will receive budget support for generator fuel and maintenance.
In the current financial year, about R260bn is allocated to funding health care, of which 23% is for the national department of health. Of this, 85% is transferred to the provinces to fund national health system priorities in the form of grants.
The Treasury has set aside an additional R23.7bn to cover the shortfall in compensation budgets in the health sector and to improve public health services in the medium term, but critics have slammed the move, saying the extra funds will do little to alleviate the pressure on provinces as their budgets shrink.
Water pumps
Power outages do not only affect life-saving machinery, electronics and lights in hospitals, but also hamper water pumps during extended periods of blackouts, particularly in Gauteng. Phaahla said while all hospitals had reservoirs, they can only last for a limited period if water pumps do not function on account of load-shedding.
In the year ahead, the minister said, the health sector infrastructure grant would be utilised to ensure that where possible underground water could be used to supplement municipal supplies. Meanwhile, the department’s infrastructure team, working with the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, is on the verge of completing a study into how best to provide additional power from independent power producers, solar and batteries.
“So we are saying that any new infrastructure in the coming financial year will include independent power supply, especially in terms of solar and any other technologies,” the health minister said.
“We are working with the CSIR to ensure that whatever technology is implemented will be sustainable and will be able to be reliable in supplementing the grid to make sure that our health facilities can have independent power supply when there are prolonged periods of load-shedding.”
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