Disruption in the supply of power has also forced authorities at the hospital to send patients home, while in serious cases patients were transferred to private hospitals for urgent operations.
Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa said the outages at Parirenyatwa have forced the city of Harare to approach the utility power company ZESA, with a plan to resuscitate the thermal power station which stopped working 15 years ago.
Muchemwa said repeated calls to ZESA to continue power supply to sensitive institutions like hospitals in Harare have fallen on deaf ears. Although both Parirenyatwa and Harare hospitals have contingency back-up generators that are supposed to kick in when there are power outages, most of the times the generators are out of service.
‘Its either they don’t have fuel or there is a mechanical fault with the generators, so it has really been a struggle at Parirenyatwa, the most affected hospital in the city,’ Muchemwa said.
City fathers have had meetings with ZESA officials in a bid to have the thermal station back in the hands of the council, as it used to be before the utility company took over in the early 1990’s.
‘Officials in the city council believe that if they can restore the thermal station, which uses coal, power from that station will be prioritised to institutions like hospitals around the capital,’ Muchemwa added.
Dr Douglas Gwatidzo of Doctors for Human Rights told the media in Harare on Wednesday that the country’s chronic power woes must be addressed to prevent needless loss of life.
Post published in: News