Operational update on QEII VG power issues

Nova Scotia Health will replace a transformer that caused a recent power outage at the Centennial Building of the QEII Health Sciences Centre’s Victoria General campus within the next 24 hours and resume normal operations at the site by end of week.

Completing this work will require a planned power outage lasting up to two hours. 

Just before midnight, Friday, March 6, the Centennial Building lost power. While the generators were functioning, one of the building’s two transformers experienced a problem resulting in the power loss. After investigation of the internal issue, we asked Nova Scotia Power to transfer the building to a secondary feed, restoring full power to the building at approximately 5:30 a.m. Later Saturday, the Centennial Building returned to regular street power.

Critical medical equipment for patients who depend on it has dedicated backup battery power.

Five patients from the intensive care unit were transferred to the Halifax Infirmary site as a precaution. 

We are extremely grateful to both our clinical teams and our facilities management staff for their swift and expert response to this situation and ensuring the safety of our patients.

Technical follow up 

Since the incident, our facilities team has been working with experts and community partners around the clock to investigate, diagnose and plan a remediation to the problem.

We have been working to remove the affected transformer, and test and install a replacement transformer.

The power shutdown is required to connect and test the replacement transformer.

Patient impacts

As of Tuesday, 21 surgeries had been relocated from VG to other sites and 39 surgeries had been rescheduled.

We have worked to minimize the number of inpatients in the Centennial Building. No patients remain in the ICU. We are expediting the placement of some patients currently in Central Zone hospitals waiting for long-term care to beds in the new Phase 2 wing of West Bedford Transitional Health, which is set to open for transitional care next month.

Successful installation of the transformer will allow us to resume surgical services and reopen the ICU in the Centennial Building.

Patients will hear directly from their care teams if care scheduled for the Centennial Building Thursday is being rescheduled or relocated.

We apologize for the inconvenience of the disruptions this week.