Aceng begs for electricity for hospitals

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Minister of Health, Jane Ruth Aceng, has begged parliament to help connect hospitals to industrial power lines in another sign of neglect for the health sector. “The Ministry of Energy is aware.

All the hospitals need three-phase transformers but are connected to one-phase transformers. My humble appeal is that our health facilities are connected to industrial lines,” Aceng said. To protect against future threats owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister said that all 16 regional referral hospitals were each equipped with 10 intensive care units whose operations are also challenged by power supply.

The deficient power supply to hospitals across the country poses a challenge in operating key equipment, Aceng said that despite the procurement of high capacity oxygen plants for all specialised and regional referral hospitals, the power delivered by the single-phase transformers to the facilities cannot run the equipment.

According to available information, single-phase transformers typically distribute power to end users in domestic and residential settings. The minister said this in response to concerns by legislators on the state of hospitals to handle cases of COVID-19 and other conditions faced by Ugandans.