Cape Town - Western Cape health MEC Professor Nomafrench Mbombo has accused Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla of leaving the province behind in his announcement of hospitals to be exempted from load shedding.
The hospitals included in Phaahla’s list are: the Red Cross War Memorial Hospital, Groote Schuur Hospital, and Tygerberg Hospital yet none of these were submitted by the provincial team, according to Mbombo.
These hospitals have had exemptions in place for up to Stage 6, as part of an agreement with the City, which has been placed for at least four years.
Mbombo held an urgent media briefing on Friday afternoon to discuss the impact of what was called the “virtually non-exemption of hospitals in the Western Cape”.
She said there was a request for 10 healthcare facilities including the large Khayelitsha Hospital, on the Eskom grid. Others include George, Worcester, Paarl, Caledon, Vredendal, Eerste River, Oudshoorn, Ceres and Beaufort West hospitals.
“The exemptions made by Minister Phaahla leave the Western Cape behind... This is unacceptable. We are appealing to the National Department of Health to seriously consider our request for further exemptions at our critical service delivery sites,” she said.
Earlier that day, Phaahla had announced that 37 hospitals across the country have been exempted from the relentless power cuts.
Health spokesperson Foster Mohale said Phaahla announced the health facilities which have been exempted, together with the ones waiting responses from Eskom and municipalities.
“The lists were provided by both Eskom and provincial senior managers who are part of the meetings between the government and Eskom.
“The National Health Department is intervening as per requests from Eskom, and provinces to have a proper co-ordination of the exemption requests to ensure that no province is left behind as far as hospitals exclusion/exemption is concerned.
“Hence it was recommended during the meeting attended by heads of health departments led by director-general Dr Sandile Buthelezi,” he said.
Mohale said due to the complexity of the electric feeder system or configurations in different parts of the country, Eskom indicated it may take time to immediately exclude other health facilities.
“This is a work in progress... The government will update the lists as and when progress is made. Eskom has indicated that hospitals which are connected with many other customers on the same feeder lines, may need special attention, which may come at a cost.
“The department is ready to absorb the reconnection costs to make it easier for hospitals to be exempted. Provinces know their priority lists of hospitals for exemption,” Mohale said.
Cape Times