Halifax hospital will get new sterilization system, Leo Glavine says

The Halifax Infirmary will get a new$500,000 sterilization system to replace malfunctioning equipment that has caused hundreds of surgeries to be postponed over the past 10 days, Nova Scotia's governmentsaid Wednesday.

Nova Scotia Health Minister Leo Glavine told the legislature this afternoon that the government is ordering five sterilizing unitsat a cost of $100,000each.

He first said they'd cost $1 million each, but a Health Department spokesman later corrected that figure to$100,000 each.

• Halifax Infirmary may need $1M to fix sterilization problem

"The time has come and the department is committed to the purchase of new equipment," he said.

Hospital staff discovered black flecks of material on medical devices that had been inside the sterilizing units. It turned out the material was the product of corrosion.

"The black metallic specks are coming from erosion inside the sterilizer. The age of the sterilizers are all roughly the same 25 to 30 years. They will have to be replaced;that is not an option, to look at repair," Glavine said.

"It is about a five-to six-week process to get those here.In the meantime, we will continue to escalate the plan to have the equipment sterilized around the province."

Glavine said ambulatory clinic surgeriesat the Queen Elizabeth IIHealth Sciences Centreare now operating at 100 per cent, the Victoria General site is at 70 per cent and and the Halifax Infirmary at 65 per cent.

"We are still not where we need to be or want to be," he said.

The five sterilizers are being ordered from an American firm anda decision to purchase or leasethe equipment is currently being weighed, he said.

"A lease provides the option of updating that equipment perhaps on a more regular basis than obviously we have done, and we wouldn't be in the situation that we currently are."