Services are returning to normal today at Battlefords Union Hospital and at Prairie North Health Region rural health facilities affected by power outages from Monday's night's storm.
Patient care is being maintained with backup power from emergency generators, as designed. However, because of the power outage, there is no air conditioning in affected buildings. People are advised not to visit affected facilities as we work to keep the buildings as cool as possible.
Members of the public are advised not to come to Battlefords Union Hospital unless your situation is an emergency. The emergency department remains open.
Power was restored to BUH around 9:00 p.m. Tuesday. The facility had been running on backup power from emergency generators since just before 10 p.m. Monday.
Outpatient Laboratory services at BUH and at the Laboratory Service Centre at the Primary Health Centre, Frontier Mall North Battleford are not yet available. The closure of outpatient Lab services today is related to the disruption caused by the power outage on this week's planned implementation of the new provincial lab information system in North Battleford. Outpatient lab services at the hospital and the Primary Health Centre will resume normal hours Thursday.
Surgical services at BUH are also restricted today to emergencies only. Nineteen surgeries previously scheduled for today were cancelled yesterday afternoon when it was uncertain as to when regular power to the facility would be restored.
At this time, power has not yet been restored to Loon Lake Health Centre and Special Care Home.
Power to Riverside Health Complex in Turtleford was restored around 1:30 this morning; St. Walburg at 2:30 a.m. today, and L. Gervais Memorial Health Complex in Goodsoil at 6 this morning. Goodsoil may continue to face rotating outages as work continues to return power to the remainder of northwest and northern Saskatchewan.
Elsewhere in Prairie North, power was restored to Meadow Lake Hospital/Northwest Health Facility, Northland Pioneers Lodge, and the Meadow Lake Primary Health Centre/Meadow Lake Associate Clinic late Tuesday afternoon. Lady Minto Health Care Center in Edam also came back on line yesterday afternoon.
In a press release, Prairie North Health Region expresses appreciation to all staff and physicians who worked to maintain safe, quality health services for patients, residents and clients throughout this emergency situation.
PNHR officials also say the co-operation and understanding of our patients, visitors, and communities in accessing our services and facilities on a more limited basis as we focused on maintaining critical patient services during the power outages.
