Power outage forces IWK to cancel elective surgeries
UPDATED 8:24 p.m. Wednesday
The IWK Health Centre postponed all elective surgeries and non-urgent appointments Wednesday due to an electrical outage that lasted most of the day.
But emergency and urgent surgeries went ahead as usual, said IWK spokesman Nick Cox.
A backup generator provided power to the hospital until about 4 p.m. when Nova Scotia Power crews repaired an underground cable.
“We are ramping the systems up slowly to ensure it is stable but ... as of right now, we are no longer on emergency power,” Cox said late Wednesday afternoon.
However, as a precaution, the IWK is cancelling most elective surgeries for Thursday. Patients and families will be contacted directly regarding their surgeries.
Cox said 19 surgeries were postponed as a result of the electrical outage, which occurred at about 10:30 a.m.
Nova Scotia Power officials initially estimated power would be restored by 12:30 p.m. However, it took much longer than expected to identify and repair the problem, power company spokeswoman Neera Ritcey said.
That’s because the cable that needed fixing runs underground between an electrical substation and the IWK. This prevented crews from making a visual assessment like they would with overhead wires, Ritcey said.
Crews do not know what caused the problem, she said.
Surgeries were underway when the outage occurred, but no medical equipment failed, Cox said.
When the power went out and the emergency generators kicked in, staff were dispatched to make sure all the medical equipment was functioning.
“It is almost a seamless transition,” Cox said.
While medical equipment remained operational, air conditioning and elevators were not working in some parts of the hospital.
Sources said one of the backup generators malfunctioned, prompting a scramble to get a new generator to the hospital immediately.
However, Cox said the hospital has three generators and the malfunction did not compromise patient care.
“One of our generators had hiccups earlier in the afternoon but it is working fine now,” Cox said in a mid-afternoon interview.
“We are just bringing in (another) generator to be a backup to the backup. Just better be safe rather than sorry.”
Halifax police provided an emergency escort for the new generator. Officers stopped traffic at intersections throughout metro as the generator made its way to the south-end hospital from Burnside.
“They needed it ASAP,” police spokesman Const. Brian Palmeter said.
Laurie Clarke of Dartmouth called The Chronicle Herald to express concerned that his daughter, who had a baby on Monday, was being discharged early from the hospital due to the power outage.
“The doctor came in this morning and said, ‘I am keeping you and the baby again tonight, due to the fact that the baby was losing weight,’ ” Clarke said mid-afternoon.
Now, “my daughter is getting kicked out of the hospital.”
Cox said no patients were discharged due to the power outage.
“No one is going home sooner than they should,” he said.
Patients and families requiring further information about their elective surgeries or non-urgent appointments should call the number provided to them on their appointment letter, the hospital said.
The Victoria General section of the Queen Elizabeth Health Sciences Centre also lost power for just over an hour, prompting the delay of some surgeries, but no cancellations, said John Gillis, Capital Health spokesman.