Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
The MLA for Portage la Prairie is alarmed his city’s hospital has been treating some patients in a room where black mould is growing.
Jeff Bereza said he’s heard complaints from patients and staff at Portage District General Hospital, who’ve told him the treatment room for dialysis patients began sustaining water damage in July.
Photos the Opposition Progressive Conservatives received from a patient show numerous black patches dotting the bottom of a wall, taped over with plastic. There’s another area of mould underneath the sink.
“It sounds like there’s unsafe work conditions,” Bereza said.
A professor who’s studied mould and air quality says she’s baffled any patients were in that room at all.
“There’s absolutely no reason why that should not have been cleaned up as soon as they saw the problem,” said Karen Bartlett, a professor emeritus at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.
Parts of a treatment room are taped off in order to contain black mould that formed at the Portage District General Hospital. The hospital’s director says all proper protocols were followed and work is underway to repair the issue. (Submitted by the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba)
She said people shouldn’t be subjected to mouldy indoor environments, whether it’s in a hospital or their homes.
“I’m just really, really surprised that has been allowed to continue in that state, the way that it looks in the photos.”
Lauren Doell, director of the Portage District General Hospital, said in a statement the hospital followed “established protocols” and Workplace Safety and Health advice once the leaking pipe in the dialysis department was discovered.
The hospital is working with Workplace Safety and Health
The “impacted materials have been isolated” and work is underway to repair the issue to “ensure the area remains safe,” Doell said.
She also wrote in her statement that “air testing has been arranged,” but did not answer late Thursday questions about whether any testing previously occurred in the room and if patients were still being treated there.
Bartlett said the plastic covering and air purifier would have reduced the health risks from the mould, but people have different sensitivities to the same fungi, and that’s why close encounters should be avoided.
An air purifier sits in a treatment room at Portage District General Hospital, where mould is growing on a wall. (Submitted by the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba)
“Luckily, four hours isn’t a lot of time, given the fact that it’s taped off and [there’s an] air purifier.”
MLA Bereza said he’s heard the leak in the treatment room dates back to July.
The issues in the dialysis department are another sign the hospital needs to close in favour of the already-built replacement, he said.
It was announced in January that construction of a new hospital was finished, but the planned November opening was delayed to prepare staff for the transition. A new opening date hasn’t been announced.
There’s no reason to fret over the existing hospital “when we have a brand new hospital that’s ready to go, sitting right next door to it, with a much bigger dialysis department in it, with equipment ready to go, with people that are training over in the hospital,” Bereza said.