As Eskom continues to plunge the country into darkness with loadshedding, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has called on the government to stop cutting power to the country’s hospital.
According to HPCSA president Professor Simon Nemutandani, “hospitals in the country are buckling under pressure.”
While private facilities and secondary and tertiary public hospitals have backup generators, not all smaller hospitals and clinics have them, reports News24.
With more than 80% of South Africans dependent on the public health system, loadshedding has affected the quality of healthcare in South Africa and added an extra burden to already overloaded staff.
In the statement, the council noted that healthcare practitioners were unable to perform emergency surgeries on time with the outages putting the lives of patients at risk.
Nearly 420 state-run hospitals and more than 3,000 state-run clinics were experiencing daily blackouts, according to the HPCSA.
Also read:
Lane closures: an elevated traffic circle roll-out, the first of its kind in SA
Picture: Pexels