After completing an assessment of the damage at the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax on Monday, Nova Scotia Health Minister Leo Glavine says he was ‘appalled.’
“It was only a one-inch pipe. When I looked at what had taken place here at the Centennial Building, I thought it was a major main pipe that had broken here, but the one-inch pipe was under tremendous pressure,” he said.
The complete assessment of the damage is still a few weeks away. Meanwhile, surgeries are going ahead as scheduled, with less than 10 postponed on Monday.
“We are back to a full slate of surgery because we've been able to change who has surgeries,” said Janet Knox, CEO of the Nova Scotia Health Authority. “We have switched some same day surgeries so that people don't have to stay overnight.”
The hospital is down 34 inpatient beds and three ICU beds. The eye clinic is also an area of concern.
“We only have been able to 50 eye clinic visits today when we normally do 180, and we know that that's probably going to be for some time,” said Knox.
Knox says she's not sure when the health authority will be caught up on the surgeries that have been postponed. She says that could depend on what will happen over the next couple of days.
Glavine says the government may have to speed up its current plan for the hospital.
“A long and difficult assessment will have to be made in the coming days on what we will do in terms of the short term and in terms of the long term,” he said.
More decisions will come over the next 48 hours when testing for moisture behind walls is complete.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kayla Hounsell.
