The 24-hour power failure at Johannesburg’s Coronation Hospital on the weekend should serve as a wake-up call on maintenance work, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday.
Jack Bloom, Gauteng health spokesperson for the party, warned that hospitals in the province were at dire risk because maintenance contracts had been cancelled.
”Hospital generators are no longer being started up and tested on a weekly basis as a result of the cancelled contracts,” he said.
Bloom said the contracts were cancelled in June as part of a re-organisation by the Gauteng public transport, roads and works department.
”This exposes hospitals to a huge legal and moral liability if their generators fail to kick in after a power failure.”
He said all maintenance functions were now being centralised to the department’s newly-formed Impophoma Infrastructure Support Entity (IISE).
On the weekend, most of the patients at Coronation Hospital had to be transferred to other health facilities.
All wards except the intensive care and neo-natal units were affected, said health spokesperson Zanele Mngadi.
She confirmed on Monday that the lights went on again on Sunday evening.
Provincial works department spokesperson Alfred Nhlapo was not immediately able to comment on the contracts.
Probe
Earlier this month, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that Eastern Cape government would implement recommendations arising from a probe into the deaths of babies at Frere Hospital.
Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela gave the assurance during a meeting of the standing committee of health in the Bhisho legislature.
Some of the suggestions were already being implemented, said provincial health minister Nomsa Jajula, adding that the hospital was to undergo a R150-million revamp.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang ordered the probe after a newspaper reported that a high number of infants had died at the hospital.
The task team found that no babies died as a result of a lack of equipment.
It recommended replacing the hospital’s six incubators and ultrasound machine, and buying more neonatal ventilators and weight and measurement scales.
It suggested that an equipment asset register be maintained, that an equipment-replacement policy be drawn up and applied and that the hospital’s budget provide for equipment maintenance and replacement.
It also advised that quality and infection control be ”robustly enforced”. — Sapa