Tag: load shedding

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Power Outages Linked to More Emergency Hospital Visits for Older Adults

On By ModernMedia

In 2018, 4246 excess hospitalisations occurred among adults over 65 in the US due to power outages

Photo by Camilo Jimenez on Unsplash

Adults over age 65 experience greater numbers of emergency hospitalisations for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases during and after power outages, reports a new study by Heather McBrien of Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, US, and colleagues, published March 12th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.

In the US, power outages are becoming increasingly common and longer-lasting due to severe weather events associated with climate change. Studies from New York State have suggested that power outages likely lead to more hospitalisations for cardiovascular and respiratory disease in older adults – due to air conditioners, heaters, phones and medical devices, like oxygen tanks, losing power. Previously, however, researchers did not have sufficient data for national studies of the impacts of power outages on health.

In the new study, researchers identified outages nationwide that occurred in 2018 and used data from 23 million Medicare patients to estimate daily rates of emergency hospitalisations. They found that power outages lasting longer than eight hours were associated with increases in the number of older adults hospitalised for cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Hospital visits for respiratory disease were most likely the day of the outage, while visits for cardiovascular issues were more common the day after. They estimate that 4246 additional hospitalisations occurred in 2018 among adults over age 65 due to power outages.

The researchers conclude that improving the reliability of electric grids would be a key opportunity to support community health and protect older adults. Other interventions, like backup batteries for medical devices and cellphones, or generators for air conditioners and heaters, could also protect the health of vulnerable individuals. In the current study, researchers examined power outages at the county level, but future studies looking at outages and health at the level of the individual could lead to a more accurate understanding of the associated health risks.

The authors add, “We found that across the United States, power outages were related to increased risk of hospitalizations among older adults for cardiovascular and respiratory causes.”

“The risk of hospitalisation for respiratory disease was highest the day of power outage, and for cardiovascular disease it was highest the day after power outages.”

“We find evidence that the larger the proportion of people affected by power outage, the higher the risk of hospitalization for older adults.”

“Power outages are increasing due to climate change-related severe weather and an aging grid. Finding ways to prevent power outages could protect the health of older adults.”

“While our studies keep finding so many downstream consequences of climate change that lead to hospitalisation and death, including this study on power outages, [the US] government continues to repeal regulations protecting the public.”

Provided by PLOS

Categories : HospitalsTags :

Loadshedding Hits Clinic Waiting Times

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Jarl Schmidt on Unsplash

By Peter Luhanga for GroundUp

Loadshedding is affecting waiting times at the Dunoon Community Health Centre in Cape Town, with patients saying they queue for hours and are still sent home without their medication.

Dunoon resident Mavis Matomane, 54, said she woke up early on Thursday 11 May to be at the clinic in time for an appointment made five months ago.

When she arrived at 7am, she joined a long queue standing outside in the rain. Matomane needs medication for arthritis and high blood pressure. She said the clinic was serving people who had arrived the day before but had not been seen to and had been told to return on 11 May.

She was seen by nurses for diagnosis after 11am and only left the hospital with her medication at 3pm.

Neliswa Bobotyana, who lives in Ibaleni informal settlement in the township, said she accompanied her boyfriend to the Dunoon centre on Monday 8 May. He was seen by a doctor and told to wait to get X-rays, but the X-ray facility closed while he was still waiting. On Tuesday his condition had deteriorated and she took him back to the health centre where he was told to open a new folder. He was sent back home and returned on Wednesday 10 May and was taken to the New Somerset Hospital where he was finally given medication.

Other residents have complained on a neighbourhood online group.

Western Cape Department of Health spokesperson Natalie Watlington said as a result of loadshedding and problems with the data centre in George, pharmacy applications for patient medication were offline on 10 May.

“Our pharmacist therefore requested patients to return the next day for their medication. We acknowledge that at times loadshedding may affect our phone lines and IT systems. It may take more time to draw your folder or process your details as a patient,” said Watlington.

She said on average 150 adults and 180 children arrived without appointments every day. This was on top of about 120 clinician appointments and 100 family planning appointments per day.

She said there were problems when patients who did not arrive on their appointment day arrived as walk-in patients on other days. There were an average of 80 missed appointments a day, Watlington said.

Watlington said patients sticking to appointment times did not need to arrive early. Waiting times differed according to the nature of the complaint and the treatment.

Republished from GroundUp under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Source: GroundUp