July 1st, 2026 is a day that Dauphin won't forget any time soon. Between damages to basements and properties, to severely disrupting agriculture in the region, and forcing the closure of the Dauphin Regional Health Centre, after what was arguably the worst flooding the region has ever seen.
For residents of Dauphin and the immediate area, the closure of the Dauphin Regional Health Centre was very concerning, as the closest emergency departments are a thirty minute drive away. After months of constant work and collaboration with health partners, Treena Slate, Prairie Mountain Health CEO, reflected on the recovery process, saying it simply wouldn't have been possible to reopen the DRHC's Emergency Department this soon without those partners.
"The main floor was not flooded and so there was no physical damage, however we [had lost] mechanical and electrical power, and so we were able to establish temporary power and mechanical services to the building, so a HVAC system to the main floor of the building...a tremendous amount of work has gone into getting where we are today in that short amount of time, I don't think anybody would have envisioned that we'd be actually here in the hospital today," said Slate.
Within the first 48 hours of the DRHC's closure, there were a slew of challenges that Prairie Mountain Health and Shared Health had to deal with, on a scale they've never seen before. The DRHC's basement was almost completely ruined, and there had to be the complete evacuation of 54 patients from the hospital. Slate said in that effort, and repair efforts since, the Province has especially been a necessity.
"There is no way that Prairie Mountain Health would have been able to achieve this by ourselves, and so we very much needed the power of the Province behind us, and so our Shared Health partners, in terms of their leadership that they've lended to support this project, and Craig Dirkson specifically for his leadership, has just been tremendous...we've all had a 'can-do' approach to achieving this, and involving our front-line staff has been key as well, because our front-line staff know best what's required to work in their clinical environment and provide the care that's required safely to patients," said Slate.
The closure of the Dauphin Regional Health Centre has been especially hard on all of the healthcare professionals who work at the building. One of Prairie Mountain Health and Shared Health's immediate responses to the DRHC's closure was to enhance staffing and hours at both the Grandview and Ste. Rose emergency departments - a move which required DRHC employees to make the trip to those emergency departments each day for their work. Slate said that measure was especially tough on the staff, but is very grateful for their continued support.
"We absolutely recognize and acknowledge the displacement that our staff have gone through over the last few months, and I don't think we can overestimate the impact of that, that's very distressing for people to have to endure that...what I'm hearing from our staff here today is that everyone is very happy to be home, and our front-line staff have been first-hand participating in this planning, and have helped us succeed in opening today on September 7th," said Slate.
The DRHC is currently on external power, as repairs are still necessary in the basement of the facility. The immediate next steps will be restoring the requirements for the emergency department to be self-sufficient, then work will begin on returning other services to the Dauphin Regional Health Centre.
