OFFICIALS AT THE BANSANG HOSPITAL HAVE MADE A STRONG AND URGENT APPEAL TO ADDRESS THE INADEQUATE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY BY NAWEC.
The lack of a stable and reliable power supply, by NAWEC, is undermining health service delivery at the moment. There are two out-of-use generators at the hospital. At the time of our visit, The third and only functional generator, had also gone down for maintenance.
The hospital management resorted to hiring this generator, which lacks the capacity to serve the whole hospital. It is only used to supply power to the operating theatre in the event of power supply failure by NAWEC.
We were told that NAWEC provides electricity from 8am to 3am, but, in most cases, with frequent outages. This was evidenced as we found one of the patients using an oxygen tank instead of this oxygen concentrator due to a lack of electricity.
Health personnel on night duty are also sometimes compelled, to use their personal mobile phones as a source of light for visibility to carry out their work. In the short-term, management has provided these rechargeable lights in the wards.
Burama Badgie is the Administrator at the Bansang Hospital, having only one standby generator in a hospital is not safe as the engine cann have a problem at anytime. We are advocating for people to come out and help us to get at least 2 new generators with 200KVA and 100 KVA capacity to take care of emergency backup needs.
This power shortage is affecting us greatly especially during outside NAWEC’s working hours we have to go and get more oxygen tanks and also hire a generator that cannot even the whole hospital and during that time if we have an urgent X-ray that needs to be done then we have a problem.
The management of hospital says it is devising other measures to help address the issue. There is already a solarization project in the pipeline, but that has been delayed due to non-arrival of some of the remaining equipment as a result of, what officials say, is Covid-19.
This consignment of solar panels have been stored at the hospital for over two years, pending, what hospital’s management says is the arrival of other equipment. If successfully implemented, officials say it will be able to supply beyond the hospital.
Giving the frequent mentions of problems with NAWEC, we felt it right to contact them for their side of the story.
Nani Juwara, the managing director of NAWEC, confirms being aware of the current situation at the hospital and the region by extension. He told QTV that they are unable to operate for 24 hours due to the breakdown on one of their generators supplying URR and CRR, which is undergoing an overhaul.
According to him, operating 24 hours could lead to losing the remaining generator. He hopes the hospital management works out how to deploy their standby generator to serve them during the four hours NAWEC are unable to provide electricity.
He gives assurance that his office is doing all it can to fix the problem at the earliest opportunity. While all attention is directed to the fighting Covid-19, there is an urgent need to address the dire situation at this hospital. Failure to do so means patients risk losing their lives due to the absence of stable power supply.
For all the hospitals, including Bansang, electricity is not a luxury but a necessity.
The lack of a stable and reliable power supply, by NAWEC, is undermining health service delivery at the moment. There are two out-of-use generators at the hospital. At the time of our visit, The third and only functional generator, had also gone down for maintenance.
The hospital management resorted to hiring this generator, which lacks the capacity to serve the whole hospital. It is only used to supply power to the operating theatre in the event of power supply failure by NAWEC.
We were told that NAWEC provides electricity from 8am to 3am, but, in most cases, with frequent outages. This was evidenced as we found one of the patients using an oxygen tank instead of this oxygen concentrator due to a lack of electricity.
Health personnel on night duty are also sometimes compelled, to use their personal mobile phones as a source of light for visibility to carry out their work. In the short-term, management has provided these rechargeable lights in the wards.
Burama Badgie is the Administrator at the Bansang Hospital, having only one standby generator in a hospital is not safe as the engine cann have a problem at anytime. We are advocating for people to come out and help us to get at least 2 new generators with 200KVA and 100 KVA capacity to take care of emergency backup needs.
This power shortage is affecting us greatly especially during outside NAWEC’s working hours we have to go and get more oxygen tanks and also hire a generator that cannot even the whole hospital and during that time if we have an urgent X-ray that needs to be done then we have a problem.
The management of hospital says it is devising other measures to help address the issue. There is already a solarization project in the pipeline, but that has been delayed due to non-arrival of some of the remaining equipment as a result of, what officials say, is Covid-19.
This consignment of solar panels have been stored at the hospital for over two years, pending, what hospital’s management says is the arrival of other equipment. If successfully implemented, officials say it will be able to supply beyond the hospital.
Giving the frequent mentions of problems with NAWEC, we felt it right to contact them for their side of the story.
Nani Juwara, the managing director of NAWEC, confirms being aware of the current situation at the hospital and the region by extension. He told QTV that they are unable to operate for 24 hours due to the breakdown on one of their generators supplying URR and CRR, which is undergoing an overhaul.
According to him, operating 24 hours could lead to losing the remaining generator. He hopes the hospital management works out how to deploy their standby generator to serve them during the four hours NAWEC are unable to provide electricity.
He gives assurance that his office is doing all it can to fix the problem at the earliest opportunity. While all attention is directed to the fighting Covid-19, there is an urgent need to address the dire situation at this hospital. Failure to do so means patients risk losing their lives due to the absence of stable power supply.
For all the hospitals, including Bansang, electricity is not a luxury but a necessity.