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Yellowknife’s old Stanton Hospital, yet to be formally reopened as a long-term care facility, has opened early to help care for people evacuated from Fort Smith and Hay River.
The Stanton Legacy facility, as it is now called, is helping to house long-term care and supported-living residents from the two towns, both of which are under evacuation orders because of nearby wildfires.
David Maguire, a spokesperson for the territory’s health and social services authority (NTHSSA), said by email that 52 long-term care residents and 11 residents of the supported living facility in Hay River were evacuated to Yellowknife on Sunday.
They have been placed at Avens, the Stanton Territorial Hospital, and the Stanton Legacy facility in Yellowknife’s former hospital, Maguire wrote, saying the move was a “complex operation” involving multiple flights and staff in all three communities.
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“NTHSSA staff have once again stepped in to coordinate an enormously challenging logistical operation, opening a new facility and coordinating the transfer of dozens of residents with complex needs within a matter of a few hours,” he wrote.
Residents of the Northern Lights Special Care Home in Fort Smith were previously moved to Hay River before an evacuation order was issued for Fort Smith on Saturday. Residents of Hay River, Kátł’odeeche First Nation and Enterprise were then told to leave on Sunday.
Maguire said the health authority had been preparing to open the Stanton Legacy building as an emergency if more than one long-term care facility in the territory was evacuated at the same time, as happened on Sunday.
He said evacuees who were placed in the facility overnight may be moved to other facilities beginning Monday.
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Maguire said staff will also begin contacting residents’ family members on Monday to let them know where they are.
“We recognize that family members may be seeking information on their loved ones,” he wrote.
“We want to reassure families that we are doing our best to keep all residents and clients as comfortable as possible, and ask that family members have patience while we work to contact them today.”
Sarah Pruys contributed reporting.
