Dauphin ER reopening ‘monumental team effort’

DAUPHIN — The emergency department at Dauphin Regional Health Centre reopened Monday morning after a closure of just over two months, restoring 24-7 emergency services to Dauphin and surrounding communities.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara hailed the reopening as a major milestone.

“It’s been a monumental team effort to get to this point,” Asagwara told the Brandon Sun on Monday afternoon before embarking on a tour of the facility.

“We asked everyone to approach this as one team and that’s exactly what we’re seeing the results of now.”

The hospital was forced to close on July 1 after significant flooding hit the region. More than 50 patients had to be evacuated.

Asagwara noted officials had initially been told that restoring services could take many months. Instead, the temporary ER was in place in less than 10 weeks.

Patients began arriving at 10 a.m. Monday at the health centre, as staff and physicians had spent weeks preparing for the reopening, Prairie Mountain Health chief executive officer Treena Slate said.

“It’s tremendous that we were able to achieve this with the temporary electrical and mechanical infrastructure we have in place to support operations today,” she said.

“I don’t know exactly how many patients have come through today, but I would say it’s probably been a quieter day than we would normally see in the emergency department in Dauphin … I’m sure that will increase from today.”

Dauphin sees around 40 to 45 patients in the ER every day and the temporary facility has “everything in place” to accommodate that volume, Slate said.

The ER operates on the main floor of the health centre, using temporary power and water while restoration work continues in other areas of the hospital.

The temporary infrastructure includes power and ventilation measures required to allow the emergency department to operate while work continues elsewhere in the facility, Slate said.

Patient experience in the ER is largely unchanged. Patients enter through the usual entrances and registration area, although some construction remains visible and bathroom facilities have been relocated.

Crews had to address significant infrastructure challenges before the department could reopen, Shared Health executive director for capital Craig Doerksen said.

Some ventilation units in the hospital’s basement remain damaged, he said, prompting crews to isolate the basement from the occupied areas and install additional ventilation.

Doerksen said the decision was made to reopen portions of the existing ER because it offered the most achievable option while maintaining clinical and operational needs.

As to when the hospital will return to its full operation, he said that has not been finalized.

“We are still putting together the whole view of what it will take to reopen all of the services here at the hospital,” Doerksen said. “We’re in the process over the upcoming weeks to identify all of those and put those into a schedule.”

Patient and staff safety remains a priority during the ongoing work, including air-quality testing and co-ordination between contractors and hospital employees, he said.

Slate said Ste. Rose had provided emergency department services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while Grandview also supported the area before the reopening. Both communities are about 50 kilometres from Dauphin.

The reopening was the result of an accelerated effort involving Prairie Mountain Health, government partners, contractors and health-care workers, Shared Health CEO Chris Christodoulou said.

He acknowledged the physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, laboratory and diagnostic staff who had to work from other locations following the flooding.

A temporary laboratory facility was also established within a provincial building in Dauphin while services were disrupted.

“They’ve done that all with the service of patients and families as their No. 1 priority,” Christodoulou told the Sun.

Physicians appreciated the “ambitious” direction from the top to reopen the ER in Dauphin, Doctors Manitoba president Alon Altman said in a statement Monday.

“We thank everyone for their hard work in making this happen,” Altman said. “We also want to thank the physicians and hospital staff in Ste. Rose that have supported the patients of Dauphin over the summer.”

The reopening of the Dauphin ER is a major step toward restoring essential health services in the community, Altman said.

“Doctors Manitoba is consulting physicians in Dauphin and surrounding communities about which hospital services should be prioritized to be brought back to the city next.”

Asagwara said the province has been working with experts from across Canada and internationally to explore innovative approaches to restoring health-care services at the facility.

“We’re taking a really unique and dynamic approach to this, and we’re making sure that the resources are available to everybody in order to get this done,” the minister said.

“There’s a lot more work to do and we’re going to keep doing this work as quickly as we can.”

Asagwara did not provide an exact figure for the amount spent on the reopening.

“We’re sparing no expense to make sure that we are restoring services here in Dauphin. Money is not going to be the rate-limiting factor.”

— Brandon Sun