Heat, hot water return to Toronto hospital after boiler failure cancels non-essential activities

Heat and hot water have returned to St. Joseph's Hospital after a boiler system failure forced the west-end Toronto hospital to cancel all non-essential activities Friday.

In an updated statement released at 5 p.m. Friday, Unity Health Toronto said all non-essential activities remain cancelled for the day across its ambulatory, procedural and surgical areas. 

Unity Health said the hospital will fully reopen in a staged process "out of an abundance of caution," as the boiler system comes back online. The system is expected to be fully back to normal operations by the end of the weekend.

Patients with scheduled appointments this weekend will be contacted directly by their care team, the hospital network said.

The statement said patients receiving dialysis or chemotherapy treatments are not affected and should still attend their appointments.

Unity Health is asking people to seek emergency care at other hospitals for the time being, unless they are "facing a life-threatening emergency." 

Family, loved ones and "essential care partners" can bring extra clothing or blankets for in-patients if they want to, but the hospital network said electronic items like space heaters and electric blankets are not being accepted for safety reasons.

Unity Health said it would not accept donations of these items either, though it thanked those who reached out to offer them Friday.

"We continue to actively monitor the temperatures and the safety and wellbeing of our patients, who are our top priority," Unity Health said in the statement.  

Temperatures are expected to drop to -13 C overnight in Toronto.

"Thank you to our patients, staff and physicians and our surrounding community for their patience and understanding, and to our teams and system partners who worked so hard to resolve this issue as quickly as possible," the statement said.

Unity Health first reported the boiler system failure at St. Joseph's in a post on X, formerly Twitter, around 7:30 a.m.

Along with St. Joseph's, the network also operates two other hospitals in the city, St. Michael's Hospital and Providence Healthcare.