Generators kept health centres running during blackout

CEO of the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) Ronald Tsoi-A-Fatt and president of the TT Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) Idi Stuart both said that back-up generators were what kept health centres going during the 11-hour islandwide blackout on Wednesday.

In a brief statement to Newsday on Thursday, Tsoi-A-Fatt said all the facilities in his district have generators which kicked in when the regular electrical power went out.

At around 1 pm on Wednesday, all of Trinidad lost power. The outage lasted until the early morning hours Thursday shortly after midnight. The sudden loss of power led to the early closure of businesses and schools. On Wednesday evening, TTEC’s general manager Kelvin Ramsook said the island-wide blackout a fault developed in one of the major circuits which triggered its independent stations to shut down.

Tsoi-A-Fatt said he had only received reports of one generator at the Brothers Road Outreach Centre, Tabaquite, having some issues, but that was quickly resolved within two hours.

Stuart also said no major issues were reported to him by nurses following yesterday’s event.

“For the most part, most facilities, hospitals, had generators,” he said. “I’ve had no reports of those generators failing.”

He said a few may have been affected but not to a great extent. He said the older district health facilities which so not all have generators would have had to close early.

He said the issue, for the most part, was transport, as many nurses, who do not own vehicles, had to travel in the dark, some late at night.