Services resume at Weyburn General Hospital following evacuation

The Saskatchewan Health Authority announced that services would resume at Weyburn General Hospital at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The hospital was evacuated on Friday due to the presence of a strong chemical odour that was initially thought to be a gas leak.

However, it was revealed that the source of the odour was clothing brought in by a patient that was contaminated with crude oil.

The SHA and the Weyburn Fire Department cleaned and inspected the building and it was deemed safe to resume operations.

The source of the odour was bagged and tagged on Friday.

“I would like to thank our patients, their families, the community of Weyburn and the many staff and physicians involved in helping us through the past 24 hours,” said Derek Miller, Chief Operating Officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority in a media release. “The evacuation during this extremely cold weather could not have been done without the care, compassion and dedication of SHA staff, physicians and paramedics who acted in the best interests of patient safety at every step.”

The SHA said the 22 patients that had been evacuated were relocated to local care homes and other health centres. In another release sent on Friday, it said 19 remained evacuated.

On Saturday, it said the remaining patients will be returned to Weyburn General Hospital throughout the afternoon.