SUNDRE – Provided the provincial government’s budget is passed, the Myron Thompson Health Centre will be among 20 rural hospitals on the docket for evaluation and triaged on a list of capital project priorities.
The government recently announced its intention to provide $15 million under the Rural Hospital Enhancement Program to support project planning, including carrying out facility and functional assessments to determine what capital planning solutions and services are required to maximize each facility’s potential.
The government says it plans to invest approximately $330 million over three years to support health capital projects in rural communities across the province. Project plans for each facility will once complete be used to guide future capital planning discussions and funding decisions for new projects.
“The announcement’s been made; we felt good about that. We were ecstatic, actually,” said Sundre's mayor Richard Warnock.
The Sundre Hospital Futures Committee has long been laying the groundwork and advocating not only for a new hospital but also to establish a health-care campus in the community. Last year, the municipality created the Sundre Hospital Steering Committee to bolster the effort.
When Warnock spoke with the Albertan on April 23 to share his thoughts on what the announcement might mean for the Sundre hospital, the mayor said the file remained in a holding pattern.
“We are waiting for more information,” he said. “We’ve been unable to arrange a meeting at this time to get that clarified. We are working with the government to try and arrange a meeting.
“From a personal point of view, I’m happy that they are looking at this, because before, they weren’t. We’re looking forward to working with them to work through this. But we do not have that meeting yet.”
Responding to a question about whether the evaluation of the facility might represent a duplication of effort of the work already conducted by the hospital futures committee, Warnock said the province is endeavouring to set up their own in-person visits to the Myron Thompson Health Centre.
“They’re sending people who can look for and analyze the condition of the hospital,” he said. “They’ve heard what we’ve said, they just have decided they need to see it for themselves.”
There have already been a couple of cursory visits but more in-depth evaluations are impending, he said.
“What we know is that they are preparing their side of the equation, if I could use that word, as to the condition and the urgency of a hospital being redone,” he said.
“What we have to do as a committee is when they’re willing to share, go through their data and see if it agrees with our data.”
That’s why the municipality struck the hospital steering committee to collaborate alongside the futures committee not just to upgrade but outright replace the hospital, he said.
“The goal is a new facility,” he said.
In the meantime, the steering committee’s working group has also been coordinating with a firm that was brought on earlier this year to develop a strategy to work toward that objective.
“We’re working on scenarios for partnerships,” he said, adding the steering committee is also collaborating with local medical professionals to further corroborate all the data being compiled about the hospital’s needs.
Of course the provincial government will ultimately play a pivotal role in determining where the Sundre hospital lands on the list of future capital project priorities.
“They’re pretty tight-lipped right now because they haven’t passed a budget,” said Warnock.
According to the provincial government, more than 18 per cent of Albertans live in rural and remote communities. The rural population is expected to grow by 20 per cent from 1.06 million in 2023 to 1.27 million by 2051.
Among the other 20 facilities slated for evaluations are: Drumheller Health Centre, Slave Lake Healthcare Centre, Drayton Valley Hospital and Care Centre, Pincher Creek Health Centre, Peace River Community Health Centre, and the Lacombe Hospital and Care Centre.
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