The emergency room at the west-end Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton is closed until at least Wednesday morning as a result of a water leak.
People seeking emergency care are urged to go to any of the five other hospital emergency rooms in the Edmonton area, Alberta Health Services said in a news release.
Those who are currently in the ER are “safe and well cared for” and are being relocated elsewhere within the hospital, located at 16940 87th Ave. Some emergency room staff will be kept in place in the event of walk-in patients who are not aware of the closure, the news release said.
Ambulances are being redirected to other hospitals, which have been provided with bolstered resources to accommodate increased demand as a result of the Misericordia shutdown, said the release.
The other five Edmonton-area emergency rooms are:
- University of Alberta Hospital, 8440 112th St.
- Royal Alexandra Hospital, 10240 Kingsway
- Grey Nuns Community Hospital, 1100 Youville Dr.
- Sturgeon Community Hospital, 201 Boudreau Rd., St. Albert​
- Strathcona Community Hospital, 9000 Emerald Dr., Sherwood Park
The aging Misericordia emergency room is set to be replaced. A new emergency room, costing $65 million and expected to be three times as large as the current one, was recently announced. Construction work is slated to begin next spring, with opening of the new addition set for the spring of 2023.
The new emergency department, first announced in the 2017 provincial budget, will be built on the west side of the hospital at 170th Street and 87th Avenue.
The hospital was hit by major flooding in 2013.
Hospital officials will be talking to media about the shutdown at 12:30 p.m. Monday.