06 Feb 2013

The air conditioning crisis that has been prevailing for about six months at Sekgoma Memorial Hospital is affecting the efficiency of cellular blankets.

 The hospital’s public relations officer, Mr Keothaile Tau said the temperature crisis was due to a multi-function of the control valve that was supposed to regulate temperature at the plant.

 As a result, Mr Tau said there was no supply of hot water from plant room to produce steam that runs the air-conditioning unit.

 “These negatively affects the cellular blankets since their effectiveness is regulated by constant room temperature and if cold air is provided, the blankets will trap cold air hence cooling patients during summer and when hot air is provided the blankets will trap the hot air therefore warming the patient during winter.”

 If it is cold and there is no warm air, he said the pores in the blankets would absorb cold air, and if it was hot and there was no cool air, they would absorb the hot air in circulation.

 Even though their heating system has a problem that has affected the performance of cellular blankets, Mr Tau has pointed out that there were no ordinary blankets provided to patients. Furthermore, he stated that there was no mortality or morbidity during the past winter season due to hypothermia.

Due to the crisis, hot water supply in the hospital, he said, has also been affected compromising quality service.

To address the crisis, he said that the quotation for the supply and replacement of malfunctioning control valves was submitted to the ministerial tendering unit at Ministry of Health in October 2012, and are still awaiting award of the tender and are currently following up the matter with the ministry. ENDS