Victoria General flood forces further cancellations, delays

There are more cancellations and delays at the Centennial Building of the Victoria General hospital in Halifax.

A burst pipe on the fifth floor Thursday forced the hospital to move 50 patients from their beds. Six intensive care patients had to be moved from the VG to the Halifax Infirmary.

Victoria Sullivan, the operations executive director for the Nova Scotia Health Authority's central zone, said there will be delays on Monday at the eye centre.

Typically the clinic sees about 150 patients per day. There were 190 scheduled appointments for Monday, but now the clinic can only accommodate 50.

As for cancelled surgeries, Sullivan said it's hard to know how many have been postponed.

"It's very difficult to actually get a firm number," she said. "I think it's more important to understand that the physicians are very much looking at the patients on a regular basis and triaging the surgeries accordingly."

Sullivan confirmed that 91 surgeries were postponed on Friday and another ten on Sunday.

"There are more day surgeries happening than same-day admissions, which are surgeries that require in-patient beds," she said.

The health authority issued a news release on Sunday afternoon to say it will continue with a higher volume of surgeries starting Monday.

Patients who were already in a bed before the flood may see their surgeries moved up.

The health authority says any patient whose surgery is postponed will be contacted by his or her physician's office.

Patients who are concerned about the status of their procedure for Monday should call their surgeon's office before travelling to an appointment.

On Monday, remediation crews will take a closer look at the walls to figure out how much renovation is needed.

"It's going to take several days for them to do that," Sullivan said.