Outreach Engineering revamps Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

Jason Huang, a director of Outreach Engineering, says while the challenges posed by shortages of doctors, nurses and funds are well understood, the importance of hospital infrastructure is often overlooked.

Outreach Engineering is a youth-led, engineering non-profit organisation with a unique approach to tackling public healthcare problems in South Africa.

The organisation specialises in providing energy efficiency and engineering services. It is working alongside the government to address infrastructural shortfalls in South African public hospitals. By helping public hospitals to operate in a more stable and reliable manner, it aims to improve the quality of patient care.

Improve reliability

"We are working on the Heal Baragwanath project, a project designed to improve the reliability and efficiency of the main operating theatre complex of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto," says Huang. "As such, we're eager to find more partners to participate in this worthwhile initiative. The Heal Baragwanath project will kick-start a series of similar projects by Outreach Engineering, which could benefit millions of people."

"We are already working closely with management at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital to revamp the hospital's backup power system and improve energy efficiency across its infrastructure. The work will help the hospital to keep operating throughout power outages as well as improve the quality of care it offers its many poor and needy patients," Huang explains.

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital suffers from frequent and long-lasting power outages. Yet its backup power system is outdated and needs to be redesigned to accommodate the hospital's large energy requirements. Until this overhaul is complete, doctors are unable to perform elective surgeries during a power outage. This endangers patients and worsens the growing surgery backlog. In addition, the hospital relies heavily on outdated, inefficient technologies for lighting and climate control.

Huge backlog

The hospital performed approximately 69,000 theatre cases in 2014. Despite this impressive number, recent articles have suggested a surgery backlog of up to seven years for certain important surgeries.

Outreach Engineering's initial work sees the organisation strive to make the backup power infrastructure in the main operating theatre complex of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital more reliable. "We are also introducing modern, energy-efficient technologies to help make the hospital greener," says Huang.