Mbombela – All services are back to normal at Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mbombela after the hospital’s power transformers exploded almost two months ago.
On Wednesday, Mpumalanga Health and Social Development Department spokesman, Mpho Gabashane, said power had been restored this week at the province’s biggest state hospital.
“I am happy to announce that all services in the hospital, except the kitchen, have been restored after we connected our electricity to the municipal power cable, which gives us 1 000 kilowatts of power – enough to power the hospital,” said Gabashane.
“Unfortunately we cannot overload the existing 1 000 watts by using the kitchen, so we’re still relying on the Correctional Services Department who allow us to use their kitchen.”
The hospital was forced to shut down its mortuary, maternity ward and the intensive care unit when the main transformers caught fire on the afternoon of March 23.
All bodies from the hospital’s mortuary were moved to a private service provider to avoid decomposition. Terminally ill patients who relied on machines for survival also had to be transferred to other medical facilities, while only 250 patients who were not terminally ill were kept in the wards.
Gabashane said the hospital had been powered with generators since the day the transformers caught fire.
He said contractors at the hospital had worked around the clock to solve the problem and to determine the exact cause of the fire to avoid a similar incident next time.
Gabashane said patients were free to use Rob Ferreira again following the restoration of the services. – Sydney Masinga, BuaNews
