The NDP raised concerns on Wednesday in the Saskatchewan legislature about a power outage two years ago at the Dr. F. H. Wigmore Regional Hospital in Moose Jaw.
The power went out at the hospital for 45 minutes, and the backup generators didn’t kick in. As a result, the entire hospital was left without any power.
One patient fell and suffered from minor injuries in the outage.
Minister of Health Jim Reiter said he wasn’t aware of the backup generator’s failure until the Opposition brought it up in question period.
“I’ve been briefed on it since then,” Reiter said. “It was a power outage for 45 minutes where the backup generator didn’t work. I guess it was a situation where these things are going to happen, right? You are going to have outages, you are going to have equipment failures. But, it was two years ago and it was 45 minutes and it was rectified quickly.”
The Opposition believes it is still cause for concern.
“It is something to be concerned about,” said NDP leader Ryan Meili. “Forty-five minutes without power in the emergency room, ICU and operating rooms, and it resulted in an adverse event for a patient. That’s a pretty significant issue when, because of that issue, the hospital was discovering they had no backup power system.”
The government says the backup generator failed because of a faulty switch. The Opposition argues it is part of a larger design flaw.
