More drinking water problems reported at North Battleford hospital

Staff and patients at Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford (SHNB) have once again been directed not to drink the water, the latest infrastructure issue to plague the facility since it opened a year ago.

The provincial NDP released a March 3 memo from the hospital’s director instructing staff and patients not to drink or use any of the building’s water after a “couple of adverse events” happened during a planned full flush of the building ’s water system.

“I hope that we can all pull together and help each other out in our usual SHNB style,” director Linda Shynkaruk wrote.

The SHA says the problem started when a pipe connection cap became dislodged in the hospital’s basement after the flushing began. In a statement, government spokeswoman Jamie Toth wrote that the water advisory may be lifted next week. No patient areas were affected, but staff were told not to ingest the building’s water or use it to bathe patients.

Toth said the leak was “primarily water” but because it’s connected to the building’s septic system, which contains sewage, it’s being treated as “potentially contaminated.”

The $407 million hospital has been affected by infrastructure problems since before it opened in March 2019. Emails obtained by the Saskatoon Starphoenix showed problems were identified with the building ’s roof well before it leaked in spring 2019.

In October, an investigation was ordered after unacceptably high levels of metals were found in the hospital’s water, which was declared undrinkable at the time.

“This hospital has been trouble from the beginning,” NDP Leader Ryan Meili said.

Meili pins the blame for the building’s issues on the public-private partnership (P3) model used to construct it. His party has pledged to prioritize awarding such contracts to Saskatchewan companies, which he acknowledges would likely be more expensive but believes will generate local jobs.

The government has responded that such contracts work because taxpayers are not liable for damages or repairs. In this instance, Toth indicated remediation would “come at no cost to taxpayers.”

Meili and health critic Vicki Mowat expressed similar concerns about the $300 million expansion to Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert announced this week, a long-anticipated upgrade that may be a P3 project, though Health Minister Jim Reiter said Friday that a decision had not yet been made.

The NDP has released a variety of memos from the Saskatchewan Health Authority in recent months, including one that urged senior doctors to stop leaking memos.

Meili said he believes this is because staff are alarmed by what they see at their workplaces.

“(Staff at SHNB) have been handed a lemon ... they’re doing their best to make lemonade,” he said.