St. Mary's Hospital is delaying surgeries after discovering black dust on surgical tools.
The dust was apparently found immediately after the instruments were sterilized, which is done in a specialized oven called an autoclave.
The dust is likely the product of a chemical reaction caused by an oven that uses high heat to kill bacteria and viruses on the instruments.
To deal with the problem, St. Mary's is shipping its surgical tools to a facility in the West Island to have them sterilized. The hospital has also made arrangements to borrow surgical materials from other hospitals in case of emergency. It is also transferring some patients to other hospital.
The issue, however, means many patients have had their surgery wait times extended.
“It's very stressful for somebody, not to know what happening and when they will have they're surgery,” said Pierre Blain of the Quebec Patients’ Committee.
Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said the problem began last week.
"There was a problem with the water supply of the hospital. Unfortunately consequences on the sterilization process but nothing consequential happened to any patient," said Barrette.
Every patient who is affected has been contacted about their options.
“We contacted every user who was about to have a surgery, either that was cancelled or postponed, we talked to each of them personally,” explained media representative Claire Roy.
Spokespeople for the hospital said there has been sewer work done near the hospital, but tests have not confirmed if that is the cause of the water contamination.
The Quebec Patients’ Committeesaid preventative measures should have been in place.
“I cannot understand that now in these days that there's no control of quality for this kind of equipment,” said Blain.
The hospital said it expects test results on what went wrong with its sterilization process sometime next week.
In the meantime, surgeries will continue at St, Mary's, albeit at a slower pace.
