Gauteng’s public works department denied a Democratic Alliance (DA) claim that hospital generators were no longer being tested weekly after maintenance contracts had been cancelled in June.
Spokesperson Alfred Nhlapo said the system that had replaced the contracts, involving a pool of contractors, was better than what had been available under the previous system.
He stressed that when a 24-hour power failure struck Johannesburg’s Coronation Hospital at the weekend, the hospital’s back-up generators had kicked in, keeping the hospital’s intensive care and neo-natal units functioning.
All other wards were affected.
”We do not yet have a report on what caused the [power failure],” he said.
”We shall try to establish further facts. It is important.”
Nhlapo said the DA claims may have been based on gripes from people who had lost contracts.
”Maybe it is about business interests rather than about facts,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, the DA’s Gauteng health spokesperson, Jack Bloom, warned that the power failure at Coronation Hospital should serve as a wake-up call on maintenance work.
He said hospitals in the province were at 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.
”This exposes hospitals to a huge legal and moral liability if their generators fail to kick in after a power failure.”
On the weekend, most of the patients at Coronation Hospital had to be transferred to other health facilities.
Gauteng health department spokesperson Zanele Mngadi confirmed on Monday that the lights went on again on Sunday evening. — Sapa