Health Minister, Joe Phaahla, will this week outline a comprehensive report on the impact of load shedding and measures to be taken by health facilities as the country moved to higher stages of power cuts.
This comes after the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) called on hospitals and clinics to be exempted from the load shedding schedules.
The Minister, according to a press statement from his department, has since ordered the Director-General, working with provincial heads of the department to finalize the assessment of the impact.
In the meantime, the department said the Minister is engaging with the relevant authorities and entities including Public Enterprises Minister, Eskom and Municipalities on the processes to be followed to exempt health facilities from load shedding.
“In addition, the Minister has been working on alternative additional sources over above the generators, which are not meant for prolonged outages to seek additional supply of power to be considered for installation in the health facilities to complement the generators as part of the energy mix,” read the statement.
The Minister is expected to hold a media briefing on Friday, 30 September 2022, where he would outline the interventions that will be taken.
