Women’s Health Clinic services disrupted after bursting pipes, falling ceiling tiles and flooding

Services at the Women’s Health Clinic have been disrupted for the second time in less than a year as infrastructure problems in the aging downtown building resurface the need for committed provincial funding that has yet to be delivered to retrofit the site. 

The centre’s executive director, Kemlin Nembhard, told CBC News appointments had been rearranged outside of the clinic located on Graham Avenue since Tuesday after heating problems, bursting pipes and falling ceiling tiles. 

The drawbacks began after the Louis Riel Day long weekend, when staff returned to the downtown Winnipeg clinic and found the boiler had stopped working, plunging the temperature inside the centre close to 1 C,  Nembhard said. 

Without the heat and frigid temperatures that hovered below –20 C during the weekend, Nembhard said pipes on the first floor froze.

The added pressure from the frozen water, combined with the change in temperature after the boiler was repaired, led some pipes to burst. 

“When we came in on Wednesday, our first floor was flooded,” Nembhard said. 

Water could still be heard running through the building by Thursday, with some leaks and a plume of steam billowing inside the clinic. 

The stability of the ceiling has also been compromised, with some tiles falling to the ground, including one that came down beside Nembhard while she was doing an interview with CBC News on Thursday. 

The downtown community health centre has been rearranging appointments to phone calls and virtual assessments or moving them to another location altogether since Tuesday. 

Walk-in services, including pregnancy tests and birth control, can still be picked up on-site if patients call ahead. 

Nembhard expects the clinic to continue redirecting its services until Monday at least. 

Retrofitting is ‘critically important’

The downtown establishment, now only operated by the clinic, was built in the 1960s, but it wasn’t designed to house a health-care facility. 

“As we’ve grown, that’s become more evident,” Nembhard said, and so has the need to remodel the building, most importantly because systems inside the facility are aging.

The elevator and boiler, for example, were manufactured around the same time the building was constructed. Some of their parts are no longer manufactured, making repairs challenging.

“We’ve known for a long time that we needed to redevelop the building,” Nembhard said. “It is critically important.” 

Many of the services provided at the clinic are for patients who are already often marginalized in the healthcare system. Nembhard said the clinic also offers services that are difficult to access in other places, outside of the private sector.

The clinic is also one of the largest abortion providers in Manitoba and runs one of two publicly-funded eating disorder recovery programs. 

Since Nembhard started working at the clinic four and half years ago, there has been a capital funding campaign to redevelop the clinic. 

Renderings and schematics with the vision of the remodelled facility have been created, and the clinic has been in conversations to get funding for the project, including with the federal government and the province.

During the last provincial election campaign, the NDP committed in a social media video to providing “full capital funding” to retrofit the building. 

After forming government, Premier Wab Kinew directed Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara in an October mandate letter to fund “critical renovations” at the clinic.

Last summer, when clinic operations were disrupted after damage to the air conditioner system led to weeks of sweltering heat inside the centre, Minister of Health Uzoma Asagwara said help was on the way. 

But so far, more than a year after forming a government, the NDP has not allocated any direct funding to the project.

Province meeting clinic, feds for funding

Asagwara said a second disruption to the clinic in less than a year due to infrastructure issues is unacceptable, and their government has been meeting regularly with the clinic and the federal government to ensure the funding comes.

But “we’re talking about a capital project that would essentially replace that infrastructure almost entirely … that is a massive project that requires multiple partners to ensure that that gets done well and, and done correctly,” Asagwara said in an interview with CBC on Thursday. 

The clinic has previously estimated the price range for the renovation to hover around $20 million.

“An investment like that is important, and we support it,” Asagwara said. “This is an invaluable health-care service.” 

In the meantime, the province has also taken steps to support the clinic as it faces current infrastructure challenges, including working with Shared Health to provide heaters and generators after the boiler went out of service. 

Asagwara said the government has also been in conversations with the clinic to help strengthen services at the facility and make sure capacity is added to meet the needs of the province. 

The clinic has engaged in conversations to bring in the private sector, but public dollars are needed first, Nembhard said, as other partners want to know what the government is committing before funding the project. 

Nembhard said they are engaging in conversations with the province as remodelling the site is a priority. 

“How important do you think it is that women, people who are gender diverse … access to this care is like good quality care?” Nembhard said.

“Our services … they’re not just essential, they’re actually critical.”