With continued load-shedding, City Health advises the public to please be patient, as some clinic operations are affected during outages. In addition, the service cautions the public to be aware of food safety practices that need to be implemented due to loss of power to refrigeration systems.

The City’s Health Department has a number of contingencies already in place to mitigate the impact of load-shedding on primary healthcare services.

A number of clinics have generators that allow services to continue unaffected during outages.

In recent years, City Health has introduced an electronic system that allows pharmacists to remotely monitor the temperatures of refrigerators to ensure that the cold chain is preserved for vaccines and other medications requiring refrigeration.

However, operations that are affected where no backup systems are in place include the appointment systems, accessing patient records and test results, conducting ECGs and viewing X-Ray results, which in turn affects waiting times or client appointments being deferred.

‘City Health has made strides in some critical areas, and we hope to unlock more funding in future to install backup power systems at more of our facilities, to ease the load for both patients, and staff. The load-shedding crisis is unprecedented, and is affecting many areas of life and services that require electricity to operate optimally. We implore our clients to please bear with us during outages. Our staff do the best that they can under the circumstances, for the benefit of public health,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Patricia Van der Ross.

FOOD SAFETY

The City’s Food Control Unit advises the public to closely monitor perishable foodstuff and to do everything possible to keep items in their fridge and freezer from spoiling.

Tips for refrigerated items include:

• Setting your fridge temperature for 4 degrees or lower. If the door of the fridge is not opened during a power outage, food should stay cold for about four hours.

• If the freezer is full and the temperature is at -6 degrees or lower, the food should stay frozen for about 48 hours if the freezer is kept closed as much as possible.

• If the freezer is half full, it should stay frozen for about 24 hours. Try and pack frozen foods as close as possible to assist in maintaining core temperature for as long as possible and consider freezing water in plastic containers to fill the freezer and place in your fridge.

• Frozen food, with the exception of fish and seafood, may be refrozen if it is only partially thawed and not above 5 degrees.

• If possible, invest in a kitchen thermometer that can measure the temperatures inside your fridge and freezer.

• Food that is likely to leak if thawed, such as raw meat, should be packed at the bottom of freezer shelves to prevent cross-contamination

• If juices have leaked from packages of raw meat, the area must be properly cleaned and disinfected.

The public is also advised to monitor food for any signs of spoilage. Do not taste the food, as this could lead to food poisoning.

Discard any foodstuff that have a bad odour, is discoloured or showing any change in texture.

It is important to note that perishable food stored at room temperature for longer than two hours may not be safe anymore.

‘If you have to discard of food items, please make sure that it is wrapped in newspaper and sealed in a plastic bag before binning it, to avoid fly breeding. Also, mark the bag if possible, to alert bin pickers to the risk. It is also advisable to consider long-life products such as canned goods and milk, which have a long shelf-life outside the refrigerator, if left unopened. Food safety is incredibly important and we ask that you share this information with your household and community, in the interest of public safety,’ added Councillor Van der Ross.

Source: City Of Cape Town