Dozens of surgeries and procedures at Regina’s Pasqua Hospital are being postponed or moved to the General Hospital Tuesday.
The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) said this is to ensure safe and sterile patient care following a localized ventilation system failure Monday afternoon.
The RQHR added small particles of debris from a fan belt failure were blown through a portion of the hospital’s ventilation system, affecting the hospital’s medical equipment sterilization area. As a result, all the equipment in the Medical Device Reprocessing Department must be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before the equipment can be safely used on patients.
According to the RQHR, procedures being postponed or moved include all emergency and elective surgeries, and some procedures done in outpatient departments like ambulatory care and the eye centre.
The total number of postponements is unknown, and more may be required Wednesday.
The health region started notifying patients and physicians Monday afternoon and evening.
Other areas of the hospital experienced minor impacts from the ventilation system failure and are receiving additional cleaning.
The incident was caused by fan belt failure on one of the supply fans, which was identified and replaced Monday afternoon.
Patients with questions about whether their outpatient procedure will proceed should contact the department where their procedure is scheduled to be done.