PGRH Electrical System Repair To Have Little Impact

By 250 News

Plant staff and electrical contractors at Prince George Regional Hospital hope to complete repairs to the hospital's electrical system starting tomorrow.

Back on June 7th, a mechanical fault in the electrical system caused a power failure to two-thirds of PGRH -- the switching mechanism that moves the hospital from main power to its emergency generators sustained significant damage.  Since June 8th, the hospital has been receiving power from those emergency generators.

Tomorrow, crews will install new switching mechanism components.  Northern Health's Director of Communications, Mark Karjaluoto, says, "Key repairs will result in some limited power interruptions in hospital departments from periods of five to 20-minutes tomorrow through Saturday."

Thursday's regular surgical slate is scheduled to take place as usual.  Karjaluoto says extra staff will be on-hand to deal with any power issues as the repairs happen.

"This situation has been difficult for our patients and staff, and I want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding," says Michael McMillan, NH's Interior Chief Operating Officer.  "I especially want to recognize our staff and physicians for their hard work and professionalism in dealing with this unusual situation."

Final testing of the switching mechanism is set for Saturday, with the hospital returning to its regular hydro power over the weekend.  Meantime, engineers continue to investigate the source of the switch failure.

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