Update: Fan belt failure at Pasqua Hospital forces surgeries, procedures to be postponed or moved

A problem with the ventilation system at Regina’s Pasqua Hospital is now fixed, but more procedures that were scheduled for Tuesday are being postponed.

On Monday afternoon, the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) discovered a fan belt failure was causing small particles of debris to circulate and blow into the hospital’s medical equipment sterilization area, which included the Medical Device Reprocessing Department. Staff had to make sure all equipment was thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before it could be safely used on patients.

Sharon Garratt, the region’s  Vice-President Integrated Health Services, said Tuesday morning the ventilation system has been corrected and the department was cleaned. She added  they’ve started to re-treat equipment.

“It’s going to take us a while to reprocess the equipment,” said Garratt. “Once it’s safe to proceed, we’ll continue with providing procedures.”

It’s unknown how many patients were affected, but Garratt said the health region notified everyone impacted. A plan was enacted so all emergency procedures were carried out. Other procedures were moved to the Regina General.

“We are very sorry and very apologetic to the disruption that this had for patients,” said Garratt.

She added an overall review of their system will be done once everything is back to normal, to ensure the same problem isn’t repeated, but she admits difficulties still exist beyond their control.

“Our infrastructure needs, in all of our facilities are significantly greater than the funding that we received to keep that infrastructure up to date,” said Garratt.  “So it’s a challenge across the province given all of the number of facilities we have and all of the needs to keep our facilities up to the standards that we need.”

Patients with questions about whether their procedure will proceed should contact the department where their procedure is scheduled to be done.