MUHC finds sewage solution
Repairs are being made to correct the slopes of two main drainage pipes
The private consortium in charge of the McGill superhospital will have to correct the slopes of two main drainage pipes in the birthing centre and breast clinic to prevent recurring sewage backups, says the chief executive officer of the McGill University Health Centre.
And on Monday, the MUHC and the consortium—known as the McGill Health Infrastructure Group (MHIG), headed by engineering firm SNC-Lavalin — launched a 10day pilot project aimed at “controlling and eliminating the disposal of inappropriate material in toilets,” Normand Rinfret told staff in an internal memo.
“Washrooms ... in critical zones will be the object of frequent supervision and maintenance, along with increased quality control,” Rinfret said in the memo on Friday, adding that the MUHC will also be checking macerators, or sewage pumps, that chop solid waste into a slurry.
On Sept. 11, the MUHC's public affairs staff affixed stickers next to 1,000 toilets in the new superhospital in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, reminding people not to flush brown paper, sanitary napkins and used diapers. Before the move to the Glen site on April 26, MUHC housekeeping staff regularly unblocked toilets at both the old Royal Victoria and Montreal Children's hospitals, but they rarely reported “code floods” — the term that is used for a significant sewage backup.
Rinfret noted that the number of “drain blockages and backflow spillovers” at the $1.3-billion superhospital has been reduced in half, but there were still 14 such incidents reported from Sept. 11 to Sept. 17. The next day, Sept. 18, the MUHC reported an additional six “code floods,” a source with firsthand knowledge of the problem told the Montreal Gazette.
Although there are “multiple causes” for sewage water bubbling up out of floor drains, the MUHC’s own “independent” engineers and the consortium have “singled out two pipes for correction,” Rinfret said. In a Sept. 11 message to staff, Rinfret stated that “the slope of one pipe is being adjusted.”
It’s not clear whether the pipe Rinfret alluded to in his earlier memo to staff is among the two that he referred to in his latest message. In his statement on Friday, he indicated that the two pipes are located on the sixth floor of the C bloc. The only way to get at those pipes is from the fifth floor, which houses the sterile operating rooms.
Ian Popple, a spokesperson for the MUHC, said the repairs are not expected to “impact clinical care in any way.” Asked whether some scheduled surgeries might have to be postponed, he responded: “Work is done after hours and from hospital corridors where possible.”
However, the MUHC source — who didn’t want his name published for fear of losing his job — said some of the operating rooms will have to be closed during the repairs, and this could have an impact on the scheduling of elective surgeries.
Popple said the private consortium will defray the full cost of the repairs, which should be completed by the end of the week.
Rinfret added that “MHIG is now moving to fix (the) slopes” of the two pipes.
SNC-Lavalin was apparently aware of one of the problematic pipes in the C bloc at least three weeks ago. In an Aug. 28 email to the Montreal Gazette, Louis-Antoine Paquin, a spokesperson for the company, suggested that “the solution is to open the pipes from underneath, where an operating room is located. Therefore, we are working with MUHC staff to determine when will be the best time to perform this work. Note that operating rooms are located under the birthing centre. Special considerations and measures have to be taken before undertaking any work in that sector.”
In his memo to staff on Friday, Rinfret noted that the two sewage pipes in C06 flow from the birthing centre and the breast clinic.
Initially, SNC-Lavalin declared that the problem of the sewage backups was “largely under control” — a statement Paquin made on Aug. 26.
Since then, multiple sources have described seeing sewage on hallway floors, in patient rooms and in clinics “that looks like diarrhea” oozing out of drains and producing a foul stench.
Rinfret said that the MUHC’s Infection Prevention and Control Department has met with nurses and administrators to “review the plumbing plans and surrounding connections for C06.” Inspections have also identified the second floor of the D bloc, which houses the Royal Vic, as being “prone to (sewage) incidents.”
In addition to advice on what not to flush down toilets, patients who are asked for urine samples will be shown “how to perform a urine culture and where to throw (out) the contents.”
The superhospital was built as a public-private partnership, with the private consortium financing, designing and building the facilities. Under the contract, the consortium will lease the superhospital to the MUHC for 34 years, after which the hospital network will assume full control.
One of the main selling points of the partnership was to transfer the risk of any cost overruns to the consortium. However, since the superhospital opened, SNC-Lavalin has demanded at least $172 million to cover a wide range of “extras” it claims were not covered in the contract.
Three former SNC-Lavalin executives currently face criminal charges as part of an alleged conspiracy to rig the bids so that the Quebec firm would win the contract in 2010.