A Montreal well being community diverted ambulances from its services, together with the Royal Victoria Hospital, and cancelled outpatient and surgical appointments after a water major break early Friday left its superhospital web site with out drinkable water.
In an replace early Friday afternoon, the McGill College Well being Centre (MUHC) mentioned that the state of affairs is being “resolved.”
“Technical Services are monitoring the situation as the water pressure comes back and ensuring a safe return to normal. The collaboration with the City of Montreal will continue throughout the day,” the MUHC mentioned in a assertion on its web site.
“Clinical services will ramp up over the course of the day, including ER, surgeries and ambulatory services.”
The replace comes after the MUHC mentioned the “major aqueduct failure” early Thursday evening left all services with out potable water at its Glen web site within the metropolis’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough.
Together with Royal Victoria Hospital, the aqueduct failure additionally affected Cedars Most cancers Centre, Montreal Chest Institute, Montreal Youngsters’s Hospital and the Analysis Institute of the MUHC. The Glen web site is taken into account a “superhospital” as a result of it’s composed of a number of medical centres.
A Metropolis of Montreal spokesman mentioned Friday that authorities first discovered of the water major break about 1:30 a.m. however waited till about 7:30 a.m. to close the valve to present the hospital flexibility and permit it to proceed working so long as attainable.
“The hospital only has half the water pressure they usually get, it’s not sufficient to ensure the hospital will be able to conduct all their normal operations,” mentioned Philippe Sabourin.
Sabourin says the leak within the 12-inch pipe might be discovered and repaired, an operation that might take a couple of day. Street site visitors within the space is closed whereas the work is finished.
“The main concern at this point for the city is to provide enough (water) pressure in the network of the MUHC so the hospital can return to normal operations as soon as possible,” Sabourin mentioned.
All surgical procedures besides emergency procedures had been cancelled Friday; chemotherapy sufferers had been receiving remedy as scheduled. Sufferers and employees had been being given bottled water.
— with information from World’s Kalina Laframboise
