Chair, I am prepared: This is not one hundred per cent new, as it is related. He is right. That is exactly what I was describing. If you suddenly have an avalanche of premature and pre-term babies, they obviously congest the hospitals and the number of incubators that are needed suddenly increases. We are aware of that and we are trying our best to buy and increase the number of them.
If you remember there was the same situation at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, where six babies died at the same time. We subsequently increased the number of staff, put in more incubators, and built an extra neonatal ward to accommodate the others. We did all those things, and we are doing them all over the country.
What I was describing is that the number of these premature babies is just increasing day by day because of the conditions that I have mentioned here. Thank you.
Assessment undertaken by department to verify whether all public hospitals have functioning generators
41. Ms M G Boroto (ANC) asked the Minister of Health:
Whether his department has undertaken an assessment to verify whether all public hospitals have functioning generators to ensure that they are able to provide health care services in cases of power shortages; if not, why not; if so, (a) how many hospitals in each province do not have functioning generators and (b) what plans is his department putting in place to address this situation?