Africa-Press – South-Africa. The health department has increased the number of hospitals, which are exempt from load shedding, to 72.
This is to ensure uninterrupted healthcare provision during rotational power outages, the department’s spokesperson, Foster Mohale, said on Thursday.
Last month, the department announced the exclusion of 37 hospitals after Health Minister Joe Phaahla expressed concern regarding the effect of load shedding.
Some provinces with facilities excluded from load shedding include Gauteng (17), KwaZulu-Natal (15), Free State (14), Limpopo (10) and North West (1).
Mohale, however, added that the department’s director-general, Sandile Buthelezi, and Eskom’s group executive for distribution, Monde Bala, were working towards finding “short-to-medium solutions to ensure no province is left behind”.
He attributed the delays, partly, to electricity configuration networks, making it challenging to isolate hospitals from community networks.
“The department has provided Eskom with a total of 212 priority hospitals across the country to be considered for possible exclusion from load shedding on a phased approach, and 67% are supplied directly by municipalities, while Eskom supplies the remaining 33%,” he said.
He said a preliminary network analysis revealed that building new infrastructure, to exempt 28 hospitals in various provinces from load shedding, would cost an estimated R100 million.
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