George Hospital exempt from load shedding

Update

GEORGE NEWS - George Regional Hospital CEO Michael Vonk has welcomed the exemption of the hospital from load shedding, saying that it is “transformational” and a relief.

“We were carrying a huge risk in the essential sections such as the theatres and the critical care and neonatal units while the generators were running. Whenever there was load shedding at night, the workshop guys were there to check on the generators and see to it that they were running fine. This exemption completely changes the risk we were under.”

George was at the top of a list of priority hospitals on the Eskom grid for which the Western Cape Health Department had requested relief from load-shedding after only three hospitals in the Cape had been exempted since the end of September.

Vonk said that, to spare the generators from too much pressure, the non-clinical areas of the hospital were not running during load-shedding. Now the full hospital can remain operational again.

Borrowed diesel

“There are obviously massive cost benefits too as we were using huge volumes of diesel. Because we were at the end of the logistics supply line, it was often a challenge to secure stock.

"At one stage the Garden Route District Municipality lent us some diesel. This situation made me think of the Covid pandemic when we had these same challenges with procuring oxygen. We were also constantly measuring diesel levels as we used to do with the oxygen. Then the load shedding suddenly changes to stage 6 and your planning is out.”

When Eskom was initially approached regarding exemption, the problem was that the hospital was too embedded in the network and could not be isolated.

Vonk said George Municipality has played a big role in isolating the hospital from the grid and must be lauded for their cooperation and efforts.

“This was a good example of how local and provincial government can work together for service delivery. We want to thank everyone, also the electrical engineers, for their contribution in this process.”

Load shedding has huge impact on Mediclinic

Jeanita le Roux, nursing manager of Mediclinic George and Geneva, said load-shedding has a significant impact on their day-to-day management and operation. The hospitals have two separate generators that supply Mediclinic George and Geneva individually with power during load shedding.

Generators guzzling over 13 000 litres of diesel per month

“Apart from the 13 150 litres of diesel used in one month for the two generators, the hospital also realises the life-threatening potential the situation holds and behind the scenes, the technical team is always present during loadshedding to ‘babysit’ the generators, ensuring nothing goes wrong, or to correct any difficulties experienced,” said Le Roux.

She said because the facilities are a few kilometres apart, the ‘babysitting’ needs to be done by two different staff members.

“Unfortunately due to the schedule of the load shedding, it is impossible for the same men to do the 02:00 to 04:00 slot as well as the next evening's 22:00 to 24:00 hour slot. Four men are therefore required to cover one day's load shedding.

"After one week of stage 4 load shedding, eight men are required to work a full day as well as cover 20 hours of after-hours work for the two generators. This amounts to the entire technical component working an astronomical amount of overtime just to ensure our hospitals are safe.”

She said generators are emergency equipment and are not engineered to operate for extended periods. “For this reason, extra scheduled maintenance is done to ensure the generators are always in working order.”

Careful planning needed during load shedding

The electricity load in the hospital furthermore needs constant monitoring during load-shedding and at busy times laundry machines need to be switched off to save power for more vital functions.

This requires careful planning to ensure the hospitals have enough clean linen and power when needed. “Not to mention the breakage of equipment we also experience. This all adds up to an enormous constraint on the technical department and all other maintenance work that needs to be done daily within the hospital.”

Noise affecting patients

She said the noise of the generators also have a big impact on the healing of patients.

"Imagine being sick and not feeling well and having to deal with a generator’s noise outside your window. Unfortunately, due to the design of the buildings, we cannot limit the noise. We did however consider this in the design of the new hospital.”

She said the 10 seconds of darkness between the changing of power supplies also has a psychological impact.

“Although our ventilators and anaesthetics machines have batteries and are not affected by the changeover between power sources, it does cause a lot of stress and worries - not only for the patients and families but for the nursing staff as well.”

Jeanita le Roux, Mediclinic George and Geneva nursing manager.