The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Construction on a new elevator at the Flin Flon General Hospital is on hold until a group of workers are off the picket lines. Employees with Otis Elevator, the company hired to install the unit, are on strike, leaving the completion date of the project up in the air. "We're kind of at a standstill," said NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority spokesperson Corliss Patterson. "It's hard to estimate what the completion time is going to be because of this delay." After the strike does end, it could take some time before the workers come to Flin Flon because the hospital project wouldn't be the only item on their backlog. "The question is, when can they be here?" said Patterson. It's estimated the workers will need three to five days to install the elevator once they arrive on site. All of the preparatory work has been completed. Once the elevator is in place, some finishing work will be required. The enclosed elevator, to be installed at the entrance to the hospital, will transport patients from the parking lot to the main entrance. The project was initially planned solely as a means to improve accessibility for handicapped people. But since Flin Flon's newer, provincially-mandated ambulances are too large to utilize the hospital emergency ramp, the elevator will also be used to wheel patients to the emergency room entrance. The elevator and a staircase will be contained within a vestibule. This corridor will feature a canopy under which emergency responders will stop to unload patients and whisk them to medical assistance. In conjunction with the construction, workers have also been further stabilizing the emergency ramp. Manitoba Health is footing the approximate $942,000 cost of both projects.
