The University of Birmingham and Global Hospital have joined forces to install solar power at a Nigerian hospital – providing medical staff with the power required to continue delivering surgery and patient treatment during blackouts.
Work has begun on installing solar panels and batteries at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), in Ile Ife – allowing operating theatres and intensive care unit to continue to function safely and effectively.
The NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery (GSU) at the University of Birmingham is working on the project with Global Hospital – the commercial and industry-leading healthcare infrastructure development arm of Kids Operating Room, the world’s leading NGO focused on children’s surgery.
Surgery is highly reliant on electricity, for operating lights, key-hole surgery equipment, cautery, suction, and monitoring. Although most outages in OAUTH are short, they can cause changes in procedure and impact patients. Solar power is a viable solution, as it is increasingly cheap and easy to install. It provides renewable energy and has a long lifespan.
Adewale Adisa - Professor of Surgery at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Global Hospital has installed solar power in more than 120 hospitals across 30 countries, helping to ensure that power outages do not stand in the way of life-saving operations.
Work at OAUTH is the first of two pilot projects in a world-wide campaign to raise $100 million to equip 100 hospitals across the Global South with secure, clean energy that will help them maintain vital health services and save lives. The other pilot will be at Chinchpada Christian Hospital, in India.
Adewale Adisa, Professor of Surgery at Obafemi Awolowo University, commented: “Surgery is highly reliant on electricity, for operating lights, key-hole surgery equipment, cautery, suction, and monitoring.
“Although most outages in OAUTH are short, they can cause changes in procedure and impact patients. Solar power is a viable solution, as it is increasingly cheap and easy to install. It provides renewable energy and has a long lifespan.”
OAUTH is an 850 bed first generation tertiary hospital covering a wide range of surgical subspecialities, transplantation and open-heart surgery. There are power outages in 55% of operations, with most power cuts occurring at 3pm, during working hours.
Electricity is vital for healthcare, but power losses are frequent in the Global South. All too often, these dangerous power failures leave hospitals unable to help patients in need. Installing solar power systems at OAUTH is the first step towards providing reliable electricity that will save lives.
Mr. Aneel Bhangu, Professor of Global Surgery - University of Birmingham
The multi-award-winning Solar Surgery System being deployed was designed specifically to help address this problem. By utilising solar panels on the facility roof, connected to a smart-battery in the theatre - supplemented by the mains electricity when it is available - the system harnesses Nigeria’s most powerful and sustainable natural resource, its sunlight, to ensure operations are never interrupted again. Work is expected to be completed by early October.
The NIHR GSU launched the 100-4-100 Project at the Research for Greener Surgery Conference 2024, which took place on the University of Birmingham’s UK campus. Philanthropic donations have enabled OAUTH’s solar power project to go ahead.
