Charlotte Maxeke hospital in 'crisis mode'
The MEC for Health in Gauteng, Qedani Mahlangu, said her department will be in a crisis mode until at least Wednesday due to the power outage at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
A fault at the Ridge substation on Monday morning led to a widespread power outage affecting three hospitals, including Charlotte Maxeke.
Mahlangu paid a visit to the hospital on Tuesday morning to brief the media on the power outage, where she said that the hospital will not be accepting any patients in need of major surgery.
"We do not know how long the situation is going to last. We pray and hope that the problems gets resolved sooner [rather] than later," she said.
Mahlangu said that the hospital has been running on generators and will continue to do so until power is restored.
"We are planning to be in a crisis mode at least [until Wednesday]...beyond that, I think, it would be unreasonable to expect the hospital to function on generators beyond 48 hours," she said.
Ambulances were on stand-by should there be a need to transport patients to other hospitals.
Mahlangu said that they were engaging with City Power as to when the power outage would be resolved.
CityPower said they expected power to be restored by 11.00am on Tuesday.
(File photo: Getty Images)