Flooding closes St. Mike’s emergency room

Trauma patients are being redirected to other hospitals after flooding closed the emergency room at St. Michael’s Hospital.

A water pipe on an upper floor of the downtown Toronto hospital burst around 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, hospital officials said, causing water to pour down into the emergency room.

 

One employee who was leaving the hospital told 680 NEWS sections of drywall and ceiling were soaked and fell off. Diagnostic and electrical equipment also got wet, which will have to dried off and tested before being put back to use.

The emergency room is also closed to walk-in patients.

“Patients who were in the emergency department requiring admittance or care have been relocated to other areas of the hospital,” the hospital said in a statement.

According to Joe Moyer, commander of Toronto Paramedic Services, St. Michael’s typically gets two trauma patients per day. As of 2:30 p.m., they had not redirected anyone to a different trauma unit.

“We haven’t seen an increase in call volume today as of yet,” he said. “It’s been a pretty standard day for a snow day.”

A full list of Toronto hospitals and emergency rooms can be found here

People with a medical emergency should call 911 or go to their nearest hospital emergency room. The nearest locations would be Mount Sinai Hospital or Toronto General Hospital.

It’s not yet known how long the closure will last, but Moyer said they are communicating with other hospitals in the event of an unexpected emergency.

“We evaluate pretty much on an hourly basis,” Moyer said. “We’re in communications with the hospitals and St. Mike’s to see what the status is. It could be fluid and change quickly. At this point we have managed today and hope to continue managing with the help of Sunnybrook.”

With files from Carl Hanstke