(Watch above: Staff and patients at the Misericordia Hospital have a new problem to contend with. The site’s Family Medical Centre has been swarmed with flies. Shallima Maharaj reports.)
EDMONTON – The troubled Misericordia Hospital seems to have another issue to contend with on its site: flies.
Staff at the Family Medical Centre there say they are “embarrassed” and “concerned” that flies have swarmed the facility.
Afraid to reveal their identities, the workers shared a note with Global News to address the issue. Comments like “getting worse,” “disease with it,” and “distracting” were written on it.
Our Global News crew could see the flies – along with fly tape – set up inside the centre’s office. However, the insects could also be seen from outside the building.
According to staff, fly tape was full of flies two days after being laid out.
Alberta Health Services said it is up to Covenant Health to respond to requests for comment since it’s a Covenant Health facility.
Covenant Health tells Global News the Family Medical Centre – which is a building in the west annex area of the Misericordia Hospital property – has had flies since the summer.
A spokesperson says standard practice is to bring in pest control and infection prevention control to determine whether it is a patient safety issue.
According to Covenant Health, the pest control officials say the flies are not a safety issue, but a nuisance.
However, pest control – which was contracted out – was unable to determine where the fly problem started, what type of flies they are, and why there are so many of them. Pest control recommended the ducts be scoped, and Covenant Health did so. The fly tape was also one of the prescribed measures.
Covenant Health said it saw a decrease in the number of flies as the temperatures dropped, but when it warmed up last week, the number of flies increased.
The spokesperson said a “full treatment” of the interior and exterior is scheduled for this weekend.
Federal Minister of Health Rona Ambrose was asked about the situation on Friday morning.
“That’s not a good… I’ll leave that to the administration to deal with, but I’m sure they will take that very, very seriously.”
Mike Jenkins, the City of Edmonton’s biological science technician, says the risk the flies present depends a lot on their environment.
“Most flies like this can potentially spread bacteria and other pathogens when they walk through something swarming with germs and then walk over something we also consider food,” he explained.
“The risk of disease depends a lot on where they’ve been walking and how germ-friendly the surface they walk on afterwards is.”
“Fortunately, health centres and other clinical areas tend to be built with germ-resistance in mind – with hard, easily cleaned surfaces that are regularly disinfected, and potential germ-laden sources are cleaned up quickly,” said Jenkins.
“Something like the drain flies I mentioned earlier are of slightly more concern, as they tend to develop in sewage systems and other areas that do harbour bacteria. The type of flies from these photos would probably have less chance of carrying pathogenic organisms than similar flies randomly encountered outdoors. But the exact risk would depend on just where exactly these flies are coming from – their maggots have to be feeding on something, and that food source has to be pretty substantial to generate so many flies.”
In July, select surgeries and procedures at the Misericordia Community Hospital had to be rescheduled due to flooding in some of the surgical areas.
READ MORE: Surgeries, procedures delayed at Misericordia Hospital due to flooding
A flood at the hospital last May forced more than 50 patients and more than 160 staff to be transferred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
The PC government has been under fire for the state of the 45-year-old building. In February, the leader of the Alberta Liberal Party, Raj Sherman, called the conditions “third-world.”
Fred Horne, who was health minister until former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel was appointed to the position by new Premier Jim Prentice September 15, said nearly $20 million has been committed to bringing the hospital up to par, but added more needs to be done.
Mandel will be holding his first media availability as health minister Friday afternoon.
“They’re going to through and find out what the problems are with the flies and what’s happened with it,” he said, explaining weekend plans.
“It goes to the heart of some of the challenges of the Misericordia and what needs to be done there, but this could be an isolated problem of something inside the particular clinic that’s evolved and I think they’ll look for it on the weekend and try to solve it before they open up Monday.”
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