'Incredibly hot': St. Paul's Hospital went without air conditioning for days

An air conditioning system shut down at St. Paul’s Hospital caused heat exhaustion for some staff over the weekend, according to Service Employees International Union West (SEIU-West), which represents a number of healthcare workers.

SEIU-West president Barb Cape told CTV News members reported the hospital was “incredibly hot.”

“What we’re hearing is, there were symptoms of heat stress, folks were just really sweating a lot, temperatures were up,” she said.

“It did affect the taking of temperatures, as I understand it, for the patients and clients that were being taken care of.”

Cape said she spoke to the maintenance manager because it was an occupational health and safety issue.

“We’re incredibly concerned about that, especially as we're coming into this week where it's going to be quite hot,” she said.

Cape said staff were given popsicles and ice cream in an effort to keep cool.

In a statement to CTV News, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said the chillers, large air conditioning units, were turned off for a few nights last week for cleaning.

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“This did mean a cooler air supply was not available for several hours, and resulted in a need to catch-up on cooling temperatures,” the statement read.

It said on top of that, a power outage on Friday evening left the air conditioning system “offline” for a “significant amount of time.”

“With the increasing smoke and poor air quality over the past three days, there are restrictions on air intake into the hospital. This also results in lower cooling capacity.”

“Some temperatures have temporarily been higher than acceptable, particularly on the higher level floors.”

Cape said the air conditioning system was back up and running Monday morning, but said it will take some time for temperatures to level out.

She said this issue is a sign of aging infrastructure.

“Keep an eye on how the facilities run this coming week. They were tested last week, and I think this week is going to be even worse for sure,” Cape said.