The massive storm that hit the Battlefords especially severely Monday night disrupted power through the whole community and Prairie North Health Region facilities, including the Battlefords Union Hospital, had power disrupted.
BUH had to run on emergency generators between 10 p.m. Monday and 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Outpatient laboratory services at BUH and the laboratory service centre at the primary health centre, Frontier Mall were cut off until Thursday. The closure of outpatient lab services was 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.
The outages also had an effect on surgeries at BUH. Nineteen surgeries scheduled for Wednesday were cancelled Tuesday afternoon when it was uncertain as to when regular power to the facility would be restored.
Other Prairie North facilities were also affected by the storm. Meadow Lake Hospital/Northwest Facility, Meadow Lake’s Northland Pioneers Lodge, Edam’s Lady Minto Health Care Centre and the Meadow Lake Primary Health Centre/ Meadow Lake Associate Clinic were without power until Tuesday afternoon.
Other facilities were without power for even longer. The Riverside Health Complex in Turtleford received power at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, St. Walburg came back on line one hour later and the L. Gervais Memorial Health Complex in Goodsoil at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Still without power as of Wednesday was the Loon Lake Health Centre and Special Care Home.
In a special press release, the Prairie North Health Region extended the “deepest appreciation to all staff and physicians who worked to maintain safe, quality health services for [their] patients, residents and clients.”
PNHR staff also thanked patients, visitors and communities for their “co-operation and understanding.”
