Pinawa Hospital expected to reopen Friday

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This article was published 14/11/2018 (2757 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After being evacuated Tuesday because an electrical malfunction caused air-quality concerns and the heating system had to be shut down, Pinawa Hospital may reopen by the end of the week.

On Tuesday afternoon, a boiler had an electrical failure that generated smoke inside the facility, the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority said on its website Tuesday.

The heating system was shut down and all 15 patients at the hospital, which is 114 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, were moved to Pinawa’s high school. Patients who required care were transferred to other health care facilities for overnight accommodation and their families were contacted.

Now the hospital is using a propane back-up system and the heat is back on, but patients and staff can’t return until the air quality is 100 per cent safe, said Ron Van Denakker, the health authority’s chief executive officer. A remediation contractor is using a giant filtration system that’s “scrubbing the air,” he said. It may take until Friday for the air quality to get the all-clear signal, Van Denakker said Wednesday.

There was nothing wrong with the boilers which are located at the back of the building. It was the electrical panels connected to them that malfunctioned, sending smoke and nasty-smelling particulate into the air, Van Denakker said. They called a “code green” — an evacuation.

“I’ve been in this business for a long time,” said the CEO. “This is the first time I’ve been involved in an evacuation.” All the disaster management planning, training and drills that staff undertake paid off.

“They were amazing,” said Van Denakker. They made arrangements with the Pinawa school to turn its gym into a temporary hospital.

“They set up a nursing station and brought beds over and all of the medication over.” The school gym resembled a MASH unit, said the CEO. Maintenance staff and volunteers in the community, which has a population of 1,331, all stepped up, he said. “The people are unbelievable.”

Once the temporary hospital was set up, the health authority, which covers 61,000-square kilometres, contacted hospitals in Beausejour and Pine Falls to arrange for overnight accommodation there for three acute-care patients, said Von Denakker.

Nine others who were staying at Pinawa Hospital had been panelled and were waiting for a personal care home bed. A lack of personal care home beds in the region means that 50 to 60 per cent of acute-care beds are often filled by someone waiting for an available care home bed. Denakker said they found overnight placements for them at personal care homes in Winnipeg.

“Most of those folks didn’t require EMS transport,” he said. “We worked with the community to utilize Handi-Transit with nursing staff to drive them down to Winnipeg,” Van Denakker said.

“I’m hoping that we’ll soon get the all-clear about air quality,” maybe as early as Thursday but probably Friday, he said. “Unless it’s 100 per cent cent, I will not have my staff or patients returning there.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca