After long hours, sleepless nights, Eastern Health back in full operation Monday

After an unprecedented blizzard and lengthy state of emergency, the head of Eastern Health says the health-care system in St. John's will be back in full operation by Monday.

"For us in health care if we can keep people safe during the worst of the blizzard then we can figure out how to catch up," CEO David Diamond told CBC on Thursday.

"And that's been the work this week."

Eastern Health made the call Jan. 16, the day before the storm, to close community service offices, but Diamond said he learned pretty quickly last Friday morning as snow began to build that it would be worse than anticipated. 

With the city declaring a state of emergency, visitors to the hospital and discharged patients became trapped in the hospital, too.

Diamond, himself, stayed three nights in his office at the Health Sciences Centre. 

"I've been in this business about 30 years now and and have been through a number of crisis situations and this is probably as complex as it's been in the 30 years I've been doing this," Diamond said. 

"We had to make sure we had the right people in the right skills."

Diamond said they had a few scenarios in which employees leaving or coming to work couldn't be contacted. Posts on social media showed nurses and doctors going to great lengths to make it to work, including by showshoe and snowmobile.

"We put in place some mechanisms to make sure that anybody who was outside, we had a connection with them and we could know that they were safe so we're trying to keep our staff safe as well."

There were 19 babies born at the Health Sciences Centre from midnight Friday to midnight Monday, keeping staff busy with storm newborns.

Kudos from health minister

Despite the irregularity of such weather, Diamond said, he can't pinpoint one thing that failed during the trying state of emergency.

However, everything will go under the microscope during a debriefing in the weeks to come. 

Health Minister John Haggie was watching the aftermath from his district in Gander. Central Health also encountered some issues, like when the power went out at the hospital on Fogo Island.

"It was a challenge for the rigs (ambulances) to get to the street and it was a real challenge for the paramedics to get to the street to the house," Haggie said Friday.

Transportation will be one of the challenges discussed at the upcoming debriefing. 

"It's not often I'm short of words but really and honestly I can't find enough superlatives to describe how the health-care staff in Eastern Health managed and coped throughout the course of that weekend."

If photos tell the story, it appears as though people working in the health-care system made it work by leaning on one another. That's something they will have to keep doing as appointments get rescheduled and hospitals come back to life.

Extra shifts will be added, Diamond said, adding he's confident that by next Friday the system will be like it was before the storm. 

"It's quite amazing when I think of where we started last Friday."

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