No woman should give birth in the dark. No surgery should be carried out by candlelight. And no child should be left vulnerable to disease because vaccines cannot be refrigerated. For too long, a lack of reliable power has prevented people in remote and rural communities from accessing the healthcare they need, when they need it. As the race for universal energy access picks up pace, All In Trade Foundation hopes to use renewable energy to help protect quality healthcare for the country’s most vulnerable in the following ways;
Health clinics, maternity wards, surgery blocks, medical warehouses, and laboratories rely on electricity to refrigerate medicines, power lights, sterilize
equipment, and operate life-saving medical devices. Intermittent or unreliable power sources put lives at risk. All In Trade Foundation Health Care with Solar initiative will support communities in poor and remote areas by installing solar photovoltaic systems at health – IV centers and storage facilities.
Quality healthcare requires a dependable source of power. For instance, maintaining the ‘cold chain’ for vaccines and medicines is essential and requires refrigeration, cold rooms, and Information Technology (IT) systems for stock management. Health Care with Solar is very important in the supply and management of medical and surgical consumables, most so, the cold chain, and with continuous power supply, the vaccines will be safe and effective.
Using solar power will also help health facilities save money, which can be reinvested to support other priority health programs. All In trade Foundation
estimates a 100 percent return on investment within three to five years when health facilities with unreliable energy sources install solar systems. Additional savings will likewise be achieved through the reduced waste of pharmaceutical products due to temperature control, and broader efficiency gain in the procurement and supply management system.
The All In Trade Foundation Health Care With Solar will contribute to more resilient health systems. Uninterrupted systems for data input and analysis will
contribute to efficient and accurate quantification and distribution of medicines, patient tracking, and monitoring of overall health system performance.
Regular power cuts mean that health facilities in Uganda face IT challenges, but the introduction of Health Care with Solar Initiative will help solve this issue as credible data will be relied on. The consistent source of energy provided by solar power will also help the health sector to withstand the negative impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events, droughts, and other shocks that affect access to the traditional power supply.
