Patients, staff endure high temperatures as Saskatoon hospital's air conditioning goes offline

Patients and staff at Saskatoon's St. Paul's Hospital endured high temperatures inside the building over severaldays as its cooling system was being cleaned.

The head of a local union praised health-care workers and maintenance staff for their hard work under very difficult conditions.

"I think they were working under some tremendous pressure both, you know, to make that fix, but they know what their colleagues are going through," SEIU-West president Barbara Cape said. "And for the staff who kept providing patient care, I am just absolutely amazed that they kept it up. They kept coming to work. They didn't drop the ball."

However, Cape said this situation should have never happened, especially during the recent spell of heat and forest fire smoke. Temperatures have reached the low-30s Cand there have been air quality warnings as forest fire smoke settled over the city.

Cape saidmanagement passed around frozen treatsand sports drink to keep people cool, but that's not a good long-term solution. Cape saidthis is a symptom of a larger problem:the government's unwillingness to invest in maintenance and critical infrastructure. She said older facilities like St. Paul's desperately need updates.

"I think we have to deal with the fundamental problem, which is how do we address a health-care system with aging infrastructure that we have not invested in for at least a decade," Cape said.

In an email, a Saskatchewan Health Authority official said "the safety and well-being of patients, visitors and staff is a priority."

They said the cooling system required cleaning, so it was taken offline for several hours each night, and then a catch-up period was required to bring the hospital back to normal temperature.

They also said a power outage last Friday took the system offline temporarily and that there is limited air intake when the air is smoky, affecting the cooling systems.

The official saidthings appear tobe resolved.