Load Shedding ‘Forces’ Pregnant Patients to Leave

Modern hospitals require a continuous supply of reliable electricity to best cater to the needs of their patients. Hospital equipment, like respirators, health monitors, ultrasound scanners, and laboratory machines, necessitates electricity to function as effectively and efficiently as desired. Intensive care units, gynaecology sections, operating theatres, recovery rooms, neo-natal sections, and offices & clinics need power to keep patients stable and comfortable, and doctors and medical staff productive. Even a momentary power outage can have serious effects on the health of the patients and the operations of the hospital at large.

A city in one of the emerging countries in Asia has been suffering from a power supply shortage that has placed its healthcare facilities, especially the ones operated by the local government, in dire straits. Owing to the lack of electricity, and the consequent constant load shedding and blackouts, gynaecology departments in certain public hospitals have been forced to refuse new pregnant patients and discharge existing ones, advising them to instead seek medical help from private hospitals which may have electricity to support their specialized medical needs. Sunil, whose pregnant wife was admitted in one of the public hospitals, rued, “We came to this government hospital to avail of affordable medical care, but there has been no electricity the entire day.” He added that due to the absence of appropriate care and the discomfort brought about by heat and humidity, his wife’s condition had fast deteriorated. “Now,” he said, “because there is uncertainty when the power will be restored, we don’t have any choice but to transfer to a private hospital and hope that they have local generators that function. We will surely pay a higher price, but that’s another challenge altogether.”

Commenting on the situation, the Chief Medical Officer of the said hospital, explained, “We have a local generator for emergency. Unfortunately, it is not functional as of the moment as there were some technical glitches. We will have it fixed and try our best to have the power supply restored.” When asked when power can be restored, he vaguely said, “When the generator is fixed, then the power will be restored.”

In times of power supply insufficiency, load shedding and regular electricity outage, governments, utilities and stakeholders in the healthcare sector will find an immediate effective power solution in hiring the services of temporary electricity providers. Reliable electricity is needed to power hospitals and healthcare facilities, and renting large-scale power plants can guarantee a constant supply of power even to expansive facilities without the need to spend scarce CAPEX. Rented power plants offer economy and flexibility, because governments, utilities and allied stakeholders can pay for the electricity produced by hired power plants as the generators run, and they can choose to add power modules to the rental power plants as their requirements increase.

Rental power plants are not only reliable and fuel efficient, they also have less impact to the environment. Modern rental generators boast of cleaner operations, being able to run on a variety of fuels, including natural gas or a blend of gas and diesel. Studies conducted in different rental power plants sites around the world show that temporary power stations, like those running on natural gas, can surpass the worldwide NOx emission requirements, emitting only 250 mg/Nm3 even without after treatment.

Electricity powers hospitals and healthcare facilities so that they offer the full extent of medical services required by patients. A power interruption, regardless of its duration, can negatively impact the health of patients and the operations and facilities of hospitals. While waiting for the completion of permanent solutions to electricity supply problems, renting large-scale power plants can bridge the gap in power anytime and anywhere in the world.

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