WINNIPEG -- Things are getting back to normal at the Brandon, Man., hospital that flooded during Sunday’s major storm.
CTV Winnipeg previously reported the basement at the Brandon Regional Health Centre flooded, impacting a number of departments.
Scott Kirk, director of acute care at the health centre, said most of the water has been cleaned up and they are now assessing the damage. He noted most of the damage was confined to support services.
“So nutrition services, our medical device reprocessing department, pharmacy, our material management where all of our supplies are kept,” he said.
Due to the flooding damage, the hospital cancelled scheduled surgeries and endoscopy procedures on Monday. Kirk said this impacted approximately 30 patients, but they’re working to get everyone rebooked.
“What we’ve done is some of our slates have some sessional time where usually emergencies are put," he explained.
“What we’re doing is we’re fitting in some of these previously booked patients into that time, as well as squeeze them into a few other areas. So we’re anticipating within a week, all of the patients who were cancelled should’ve had their appointments rescheduled.”
A SURREAL EXPERIENCE
Kirk said he’s never seen anything like Sunday’s flooding since he started working at the health centre, adding that most other hospital staff shared the same sentiment.
“It was pretty surreal to see that much water,” he said.
“It was probably about three to four inches in most of the basement and then we have a sub-basement where it was even deeper than that.”
BACK TO ROUTINE
The two personal care homes, Hillcrest and Fairview, which were also flooded on the weekend, are in the same position as the Brandon Regional Health Centre. Kirk said they are finishing the clean up and assessing the damage so things can return to regular operations.
As for what’s going on at the health centre today, things are back to normal, and appointments will continue as scheduled.
Kirk noted any visitors coming to the hospital will still have to follow COVID-19-related guidelines.
“We do have our regular visitor restrictions in place,” he said.
“People can visit from 3 (p.m.) to 7 (p.m.), which includes one visitor. So we haven’t changed that, and the biggest impact we had were the elevators were down for overnight after the majority of the flooding, so once we were able to get our elevators up and down, and get patients and families moving, then we allowed our visitors to come back in.”
PREPPING FOR THE FUTURE
With more rain expected in Brandon, Kirk said the hospital did an assessment of where the water came in and caused the flooding.
“We do have some additional pumps ready to go if we do start to see the same impact and hopefully don’t get the same volume in such a short period of time,” he said.
- With files from CTV’s Nicole Dube and Katherine Dow.
