Victoria General damage won't be assessed until after Thanksgiving

The Nova Scotia Health Authority says it will be at least another 10days before it will have a full assessment of last week's flood damage atthe Victoria General's Centennial Building.

"We're looking now at a tentative date of sometime shortly after Thanksgiving,"spokesperson Everton McLean said. That assessment will look atthe range of damage and what it will take to repair, he said.

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The hospital has done mould testing on all occupied areas of the Centennial Building. Those tests came back negative.

McLean said infection control has no concerns about the legionellaat the facility, as the bacteria is only transmitted through breathing contaminated water vapour. There is no chance of spreading it through a flood, he said.

Surgeries, appointments getting back on schedule

Surgeries and appointments are also returning to normal at the Victoria General, after a loss of 37 beds put the facility in a space crunch.

Ninety-onesurgeries were postponed last Friday, the day following the flood,while 10 were postponed on Sunday.McLeansaid 70 per cent of those surgeries have now been completed or rebooked.

The hospital has expanded bed spaces in areas away from the flood zone. It has been able to accommodate the full slate of people who need recovery after surgery.

Physicians are triaging the remaining non-emergency surgeries to determine when they should be done, while all emergency surgeries are going ahead.

"The higher level of need to go ahead, the quicker we put them up on the list," McLean said. "So just because your surgery was postponed, that doesn't mean you go to the bottom of the list."

Appointments at the Victoria General eye clinic were particularly affected, but they too arereturning to normal levels. The clinic typically sees at least 180 people aday. On Monday it was down to about 30 per cent of that, but isnow back up to70 to80 per cent.

McLean said if any further surgeries or appointments are postponed, patients will be notified by their doctor's office.