Lethbridge water emergency affecting surgeries at hospital
Posted Mar 13, 2014 4:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The boil water advisory is still on in Lethbridge and surrounding areas and it’s starting to disturb surgeries at the local hospital.
The city said the advisory likely won’t be lifted until Monday and Dr. Vanessa Mclean at the Chinook Regional Hospital said the advisory is starting to affect the hospital.
“Our major focus has been around our ability to re-process and sterilize surgical and procedural equipment because of the boil water order we are not able to safely use that equipment at this time. So we had 23 surgeries cancelled and 33 procedures cancelled,” said McLean.
The city is looking for alternate locations to help with equipment sterilization.
Spring melting is to blame for the water shortage as the Oldman River is so muddy at the intake area the water treatment plant just can’t keep up.
