The Israel Defense Forces says it supplied 300 liters of fuel for “urgent medical purposes” at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, but Hamas prevented the medical center from receiving it.
Early this morning, troops placed the jerrycans near the hospital, as had been coordinated in advance with officials at Shifa.
I don’t know how many ICU beds they have to power, but Shifa Hospital has 30 ICU beds in all.
So if all the ICU beds are occupied, then 300 liters of gasoline would power them for two to three days.
I’ve worked in a hospital. During my time there we had a true blackout. Even the central power generator couldn’t turn on, because the connection was chewed through my rats. No one did a check on it like they’re supposed to every month…heads rolled for it.
Here to say, you can’t just power ICU beds in isolation. The circuits for emergency power aren’t just going to beds. They’re open sockets on the wall, any one can plug anything in there. You can’t just redo a circuit in the blink of an eye either. If their central generator died and they get a bunch of gas powered ones, they’ll need a lot of time to figure out where they need to splice the wires in order to supply power but not overwhelm the generators.
It’s safe to say they’re probably going to use their large central generator. It’s probably also safe to say they’re going to power more than the ICU beds. Even if they turned off the heating and cooling, they’re still going to use more than the figure you suggested. Some circuits aren’t optional.
The hospital needs 9000-10000 liters a day of fuel. Do you think there is a single power generator connected to the neonatal unit? How are they going to limit the consumption? It’s not really that easy and I bet most of the electricians also left the hospital… Your napkin math is also not taking into account any power losses, etc.
Plus offering 300 liters is laughable. Seriously, your car’s fuel tank is 60+ liters, so Israel offered them 5 car tanks worth of fuel. How generous and humane of them!
“How are they going to limit consumption” really? Turn off breakers, pull plugs, turn off switches, have an electrician measure, whack everyone who uses power for anything but the absolutely most life critical applications with a large stick…