Cape Town - The Department of Health and Wellness has revealed that due to shortages of finance and human resources, it has been unable to provide generators at close to 300 of its facilities in the Western Cape.
This was shared by Head of Health Dr Keith Cloete during Premier Alan Winde’s 17th Energy Digicon on Thursday, specifically looking at how to better safeguard health services amid the energy crisis.
“Due to a lack of financial and human resources, we cannot afford to install and operate standby generators in an additional 278 other facilities, of which 168 are smaller clinics and 110 others are offices, EMS bases and a range of other facilities,” Cloete said.
Ten of the province’s major hospitals have been exempted from load shedding up to Stage 6.
The department is currently in discussion with Eskom to install a dedicated feeder for Khayelitsha Hospital, at a cost of R1.5 million with projected exemption for the hospital from October/November.
Cloete said the interruption of electricity supply had affected numerous services and departments within healthcare facilities, but the biggest impact had been on staff morale and stress levels.
The department has generator availability (for essential power supply only) at 193 facilities only. These facilities include hospitals, community health centres, large community day centres, Observatory Forensic Pathology and Tygerberg Forensic Pathology.
Diesel availability and cost have been the biggest concern for the department. From April 1 to June 30 alone (three months), the department spent R12m on diesel.
The department is providing 51 rural clinics with inverters and lithium batteries, with a budget of R37m. This is at phase 1 and to be completed by the end of March 2024.
The department also plans to install solar photovoltaic embedded generators at 15 hospitals. The installation is planned to be completed at three facilities in 2023/24 (Eerste River, Paarl and Red Cross).
Special adviser to the premier on energy, Alwie Lester predicted between Stages 4 and 6 load shedding for the week ahead.
Winde said: “As we implement and seek out solutions to this crisis, this will unfortunately take time. Fixing the energy problem is not just about flicking a switch. It is a long-term investment. I know residents want this to be fixed quickly, but this will not happen over a period of months. This takes time and unfortunately it will be tough.”
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za