Question NW3235 to the Minister of Health
14 October 2022 - NW3235
Chirwa-Mpungose, Ms NN to ask the Minister of Health
(a) What kind of impact has load shedding had on public (i) hospitals and (ii) clinics that do not have electricity backup facilities since 1 January 2022 and (b) which provinces are affected the most?
Reply:
a) (i) Hospitals
All public hospitals have backup generators. Backup generators are only meant to run as backup for 2 to 3 hours for life saving equipment in emergency areas. Service delivery therefore gets negatively affected in areas which are not powered by generators.
(ii) Clinics and Community Health Centres (CHCS)
Backup power in the form of generators is available in 42% of clinics and 86% of CHCs nation-wide.
- Impact of load shedding on PHC facilities that do not have backup power.
- The electronic Health Patient Record System works on electrical power and during power failures staff cannot retrieve patients files and patients have to wait until power is on thus increasing patient waiting times
- Patients physical examination and deliveries becomes impossible in dark consulting rooms resulting in unnecessary referrals of patients to hospitals.
- Water interruption due to the water pumps in reservoirs requiring electricity to function.
- Telecommunication break down affecting receiving calls from communities and contacting call centre for ambulance.
(b) Provinces that are affected the most:
Clinics: The Table below indicates that only Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have more than 70% coverage with regard to backup power in clinics.
District |
Total number of clinics |
Facilities have backup electricity |
Average % scored |
ec Eastern Cape Province |
723 |
145 |
20% |
fs Free State Province |
202 |
32 |
16% |
gp Gauteng Province |
326 |
267 |
82% |
kz KwaZulu-Natal Province |
580 |
418 |
72% |
lp Limpopo Province |
452 |
113 |
25% |
mp Mpumalanga Province |
226 |
88 |
39% |
nc Northern Cape Province |
124 |
24 |
19% |
nw North West Province |
259 |
80 |
31% |
wc Western Cape Province |
175 |
88 |
50% |
Average / Total |
3067 |
1288 |
42% |
- 1288 out of 3067 Clinics has backup electricity
- 1779 clinics do not have backup electricity
Community Health Centres: The Table below indicates that only Free State Province (36%) has less than 70% coverage with regard to backup power in community Health Centres.
District |
Total number of CHCs |
Facilities having backup electricity |
Average % scored |
ec Eastern Cape Province |
41 |
34 |
82% |
fs Free State Province |
10 |
4 |
36% |
gp Gauteng Province |
38 |
34 |
90% |
kz KwaZulu-Natal Province |
21 |
20 |
94% |
lp Limpopo Province |
26 |
20 |
77% |
mp Mpumalanga Province |
55 |
48 |
88% |
nc Northern Cape Province |
30 |
26 |
85% |
nw North West Province |
47 |
43 |
92% |
wc Western Cape Province |
48 |
42 |
87% |
Average / Total |
316 |
272 |
86% |
- 272 out of 316 CHCs has backup electricity
- 44 CHCs do not have backup electricity
END.