Phaahla admits load shedding poses safety challenge to healthcare staff, patients
Health Minister Joe Phaahla has admitted load shedding does pose a challenge to occupational health and safety at the country’s health facilities but adds that no major incident has been reported so far.
Phaahla was speaking on the sidelines of the official handover of a state-of-the-art medical store at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital by Gift of the Givers in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Two years ago, parts of the hospital were gutted by a fire that started in the dispensary.
READ: Charlotte Maxeke casualty unit opens its doors again
With Eskom warning South Africans to brace for higher stages of load shedding throughout the winter, and a court victory to have schools, police stations, and health facilities exempted from the rolling power cuts deemed impractical the health sector is heading for possible increased reliance on generators.
READ: 'Extremely high' chance of stage 8 load shedding during winter
Phaahla said although no load-shedding-related fire incident has been reported so far, the risk is still a concern.
“The risks of [some] machinery which, if there is a power interruption, may then put patients at risk. But, from a fire point of view of course there’s so much equipment including your safety equipment that depends on a reliable power supply, there’s always going to be risk. But fortunately, we haven’t had any major incident in that regard, but we still would like a situation where there’s a much more reliable power supply.”
Meanwhile, the minister said there’s ongoing work to ensure compliance with occupational health and safety standards – with heads of departments in provinces tasked with giving regular assessment reports – to try to avoid a repeat of the devastation at Charlotte Maxeke.
“On a regular basis, we get a report in terms of the assessment of the shortcomings in terms of occupational health and safety broadly, including the fire compliance.”
Phaahla admits, based on the assessment and timelines of the Charlotte Maxeke compliance project, there’s still a lot of work to be done at most of the country’s health facilities.
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