Johannesburg- North West Health MEC Madoda Sambatha has called for the province's hospitals to be exempted from load shedding.
This was after none of North West hospital was exempted from the ongoing load shedding.
Samabatha said the national department of health had engaged Eskom at the end of September to consider exempting key hospitals in the country from load shedding as part of mitigating against the impact of the energy crisis.
The request from the national department was for provinces to submit the lists of hospitals to be considered for exemption, which the North West province submitted, but the lists of hospitals that have just been released do not mention a single hospital from the North West.
"Provinces cannot be treated differently in a crisis. Just like other provinces, the North West province did submit a list of hospitals to be exempted from load shedding.
"We raised a concern when we saw an Mpumalanga hospital listed under North West when the first list was published. We asked that it be corrected and the list of hospitals we have submitted be included, but now on the new list of 37, only North West does not appear. It is not true that North West did not submit," Sambatha said.
Sambatha said he has made a follow-up requesting the Health Minister, Joe Phaahla, to immediately intervene as the North West province cannot be treated as if it was not part of South Africa.
The North West province hospitals would be severely affected should the load shedding persist.
"At the moment, some services get interrupted, and patients are beginning to complain due to the number of times they have to wait for electricity to return.
"If the North West province is not included by next week based on its submission, we will be left with no other option but to organise a provincial march targeting Eskom and demand that the province be included in the lists of hospitals that are exempt from load shedding."
IOL