‘Mortality rates go up with every power cut’ — doctors join legal battle against Eskom and government

25 Jan 2023

Members of the medical fraternity have joined the pending court action against Eskom to get hospitals, among other facilities, exempted from rolling blackouts, which they say have a devastating effect on their efforts to save lives.

With not all hospitals being exempted from rolling blackouts, including SA’s biggest hospital, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, medical personnel are fighting daily to keep patients alive in the face of crippling power problems.

“The right to life is not suspended during load shedding,” General Bantu Holomisa of the United Democratic Movement said in his affidavit.

Two doctors, Professor Rudo Mathivha, a professor in critical care at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, and Dr Tanusha Ramdin, who heads the neonatal unit at the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, joined the court case brought by a large group of South Africans against Eskom.

They are supported by several other applicants, including political parties, trade unions, a neighbourhood watch, small business organisations, businesspeople and community organisations.

On 28 February, the Johannesburg High Court will hear their application for an urgent interdict against Eskom, President Cyril Ramaphosa, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, the director-general of public enterprises, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and the South African government as a whole.

The court is asked to exempt public health facilities, schools, communication networks, police stations, water and sanitation facilities, as well as all micro, small, and very small businesses selling perishable goods, from rolling blackouts.

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As a next step, the court is asked to order that if there must be rolling blackouts, reasonable notice must be given and an opportunity provided for representations. This will include the advance publication of Eskom’s intention to implement rolling blackouts.

The court is also asked to order Gordhan to produce a plan on what will be done immediately to ensure the uninterrupted supply of electricity and to explain how maintenance of Eskom’s power stations is being done and will be done to improve the availability of electricity.

As part of the case to exempt all hospitals and public health facilities from load shedding, Holomisa, who made the founding affidavit in the case, said not all hospitals are exempt and those that are not, do not have back-up generators which were designed to provide electricity for a long period.

“Both specialists [Mathivha and Ramdin] are unequivocal that load shedding has materially undermined the state’s ability to provide adequate healthcare to patients,” Holomisa stated in his affidavit.

“[There is] sheer panic amongst healthcare professionals when generators run out of diesel; and most horrendously, the avoidable deaths of patients,” he said, describing the impact of load shedding. He also mentioned cancelled surgeries and limited bed capacity.

“The absolute stress that load shedding imposed on our nation’s health workers is not impossible to address,” Holomisa continued. “It continues to worsen because of the state’s complete, unexplained and unjustifiable failure to uphold its commitment to human rights during load shedding.”

According to papers before the court, only 72 of SA’s 400 hospitals have been exempted from load shedding.

Holomisa said there was no uniform policy, decision or agreement that would exempt hospitals from load shedding.

Ramdin highlighted the “unimaginable impact” of rolling blackouts on the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, including the risks of jaundice, hypothermia, perinatal asphyxia, respiratory challenges and bleeding on the brain and brain damage that children can sustain when their monitoring equipment and life support machines do not work.

Lerato Maduma-Gova, from the Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union, said in her affidavit that load shedding had become a matter of life and death in hospitals. She pointed out that, especially in rural hospitals, management often has to choose whether to provide patients with food or buy diesel for generators.

“Mortality rates go up with every power cut,” she said.

Maduma-Gova added that constant rolling blackouts had a very detrimental effect on the mental health of health workers.

Mathivha said that Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital did not have sufficient resources to mitigate the impact of rolling blackouts.

She highlighted the damage caused by rolling blackouts to medical equipment, the impact on laboratories, pharmacies, central heating and cooling systems, and the negative impact on efforts to observe infection control and on the performance of medical personnel.

“Recently, I had a devastating experience,” she wrote in her affidavit. “I thought my asthmatic grandson would die when he had an asthma attack, and the home nebuliser was not functioning as it is reliant on electricity. If I weren’t knowledgeable, the outcome would have been much different.

“Patients are sent home to recover but return sooner or pass away because of complications directly related to load shedding.” DM/MC

Read Part One here.

Read Part Three tomorrow: Why a neighbourhood watch joined the action to stop load shedding and exempt police stations

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