Inverness under boil-water advisory after water main break

A water main breakin the Municipality of the County of Invernessleft a local hospital without running water for drinking or flushing toilets for much of Wednesday.

The municipalityissued a boil-water advisoryin the morning for customers of its water utility.

Until further notice, customers areadvised to bring tap water to a boil for at least one minute before using itfor drinking, making infant formula, brushing teeth, preparing food or washing dishes.

Warden Bonny MacIsaacsaidWednesday afternoon that the water service is running again, but the boil order will be on for a minimum of 48 hours from the time it was issued as a precaution.

The advisory extended toInverness Consolidated Memorial Hospital. Heather Gillis, aNova Scotia Health employee who works at the hospital,said the water service was restored at 4 p.m. local time.

"I want to thank the staff. It's challenging to work in these conditions and everybody showed up, worked as a team and patient care continued," she said.

Nova Scotia Health said in a news release at 5 p.m. that alloutpatient services that were cancelledWednesdaywill resume Thursday, May 16. It said theboil water order will remain in effect at the site until results are clear.

While the water was out, the hospital had to rely on hand sanitizer and drinking water deliveries.

The hospital's emergency department remained open, butpatients without "emergency concerns" wereasked tocontact their primary care provider,or avirtual or community access point.

Services cancelled

A number of services were cancelled Wednesday at theInverness hospitalas a result of the advisory, including:

• Renal dialysis.
• Oncology treatments and clinics.
• Ambulatory care and outpatient clinics.
• Outpatient lab blood collection appointments.
• Outpatient X-ray and scheduled appointments for all diagnostic imaging services, such as X-ray, EKG and ultrasound.
• Outpatient rehab and hip and knee clinic appointments.

Nova Scotia Health said the mental health and addictions outpatient clinic remained open Wednesday, however, appointments were held virtually where possible.

Primary care collaborative clinics and diabetes education centre/clinics in the community health centre were also expected to providecare virtually as appropriate.