MINDEMOYA—A deluge of water from broken pipes from a defective sprinkler system flooded the lower levels of the Mindemoya site of the Manitoulin Health Centre, including the Mindemoya Family Health Team offices.
“We have had an infrastructure disaster which occurred on Thursday, December 18, around 7:30 am,” confirmed Manitoulin Central Family Health Team manager Lori Oswald, who noted the offices of the health team “experienced the majority of the damage.”
Ms. Oswald noted that “we are waiting on our insurance companies to complete their assessments to determine our next steps. At this time, we do not have a clear timeline as to when our offices will be back up and running.”
The impact of the sprinkler malfunction hit the family health team offices hardest, noted MHC vice president corporate support services and CFO Eric Theriault. He explained that sprinkler systems are under pressure so when they go off the amount of water coming down is extreme. “It’s not like what is coming out of your taps,” he said. Oddly, this is the second sprinkler system failure Mr. Theriault has dealt with in his career over the past couple of years. “That was at another hospital,” he clarified.
Over the course of 20-30 minutes the amount of water that come down was little short of spectacular—a good thing when there is a fire to put out, not so much when there isn’t and the suppression system becomes the issue.
Luckily, the main functions of the Mindemoya MHC site have not been drastically impacted, he noted. “We have set aside some room in the hospital for the FHT,” he added.
As for when everything will be back to normal, Mr. Theriault said that he is unable to make an estimate. “Right now, we are just trying to get everything dried out,” he said. “There is a process in place and we are following it.” Once things are a bit drier, the insurance inspectors will be in to assess the extent of the damage, he said.
The manager asked The Expositor to reach out to the public and the health team’s patients “to let them know how we are planning to continue offering primary health care services in the interim.”
She went on to explain, “If patients have booked appointments, then our team will reach out to them to support their needs and reschedule their appointments. Due to our computers and telephone system being affected, we are not able to receive telephone calls at the moment but are working on a solution that should be in place by January 5. We would like to encourage our patients to have patience with our team during this crisis and to be assured that we will continue to support their health care needs.”
The Expositor will continue to monitor the situation and update the Island as matters develop.
