NATIONAL NEWS - A week after Steve Biko academic hospital was plunged into darkness twice in one day, management remained clueless about the cause.
Lights went off while surgeries were being performed as power was disrupted around mid-morning and later in the evening, last week Tuesday.
Health workers had to use cellphone lights to attend to patients when the hospital was plunged in darkness during the evening outage.
Patients reported that the morning power failure lasted for several hours during the day, while the evening blackout lasted around 45 minutes to an hour.
Gauteng health spokesperson, Kwara Kekana confirmed to Rekord that the hospital did experience a power outage which affected the intensive care unit and operating theatres where surgeries were being performed.
She said the outage did not cause harm to human life and planned surgeries were postponed.
The cause of the power outage remained a mystery. Kekana said the hospital management was not aware what caused the outage.
While some parts of the hospital were lit-up during the outage, it took some time for others to get the lights back on.
Kekana said the hospital had generators when the power failed. However, no further explanation was offered as to why other parts of the hospital remained in the dark.
One patient who was on oxygen said despite the power going off, this did not affect the oxygen provision.
The power outages were not the only discomfort patients had to endure.
Patients complained about being served cold food.
Kekana said the hospital management was not aware patients have been complaining about being served cold food for weeks, adding that the hospital intends to “continue providing quality of care”.
The Gauteng department of health has been facing several setbacks over the past months in its hospitals.
Last week, in a joint statement by Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla and Gauteng Health MEC Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, conceded that there were delays in the completion of refurbishment programme at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg academic hospital which experienced a fire in April 2021.
“We both acknowledge that there has been an unnecessary delay in this regard, and this has had an adverse effect on the entire health service delivery in the province.
“We further report that the commissioning back to work of the emergency/casualty unit is scheduled to be finalised by mid-April 2022,” they said.
Earlier this month, DA health spokesperson, Jack Bloom said the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital was facing food shortage issues.
The department refuted these claims saying that Gauteng hospitals did not face a food crisis.
The spokesperson, Kekana however, confirmed that Chris Hani and a few other facilities did experience shortages in supply of bread.
Health workers at the hospital also embarked on a picket action raising issues over job cuts that would lead to staff shortage issues, two weeks ago.
