NEW HOSPITAL TO BE BUILT IN EDMONTON
No word on cost, but ‘start-up’ money earmarked in today’s budget, sources say
Edmonton is getting a new hospital.
Sources who have seen the government’s plan say the announcement will come in Thursday’s provincial budget.
It’s not known yet how much the facility will cost or when it would open, but money has been set aside in this year’s budget for “start-up funding.”
“I can’t confirm that specifically, but I think nobody would be surprised if there was such an announcement,” said Health Minister Sarah Hoffman when asked about the budget leak. “Edmonton has been growing and has seen many pressures in our existing acute care facilities. There’s a good case to be made why that would be needed especially at this time.”
The new hospital will likely be built in south Edmonton where the city has undergone a population boom.
A formal site announcement is expected this summer, but there has been plenty of speculation the past year that any new hospital would be located near the intersection of 127 Street and Anthony Henday Drive.
At least that was the thinking when there was talk of building a new Misericordia Hospital to replace the existing structure in west Edmonton, which has been beset by burst pipes and heating problems, among other calamities.
However, rather than tear it down, the government appears ready to invest in upgrading the old Misericordia structure.
Same with the Royal Alexandra Hospital that began a public relations campaign this year, complete with a puppet to focus attention on the facility’s crumbling infrastructure.
“Definitely there are needs at the Alex and the Miz and there’s also needs in growing areas,” said Hoffman. “There’s many young families moving to these communities that are part of Edmonton and we want to make sure that everyone has the resources they need.”
And then Hoffman added what’s become for the NDP an obligatory slap against the old Progressive Conservative governments: “Obviously, there have been many years of deferred maintenance in our existing infrastructure and it’s been nearly a generation since the last new hospital was built in the city of Edmonton.”
Building a new hospital in the city would no doubt be welcomed by Edmontonians, especially those in the south end of the city.
It would also please Alberta Health Services, which recently recommended a new health facility for Edmonton that would include inpatient beds, emergency care, rehabilitation resources and ambulatory services.
But there might still be controversy because of the cost incurred during a recession.
(By way of comparison, Calgary’s medium-sized South Health Campus hospital, which opened in 2013, cost $1.3 billion.)
Covenant Health, the Catholic agency that runs the Misericordia, sent a report to Hoffman last December declaring: “A new hospital for Edmonton is not economically feasible at this time, and is not required.”
However, Edmonton officials are keenly aware that Calgary recently got the go-ahead for a new cancer treatment facility from the NDP government.
Edmonton wanted something, too. This is one of the constant frictions in Alberta’s health system where the politics of the province — Edmonton versus Calgary — influence how the government delivers care.
Stephen Duckett, the famous cookie-eating former head of AHS, called it a “Noah’s Ark” system of health care where “planning was often done two by two” — whatever Edmonton got, Calgary had to have one, too. And vice versa.
We appear to be in the vice versa phase.
There will be plenty of news in Thursday’s budget — some of it welcome, such as the previously revealed plan to reduce school fees by 25 per cent.
But much will be bad — such as the size of the new deficit.
The 2016-17 deficit was somewhere around $11 billion.
We’ll have to wait for Thursday’s fiscal document to see the depth of red ink we’ll be sinking in during the 2017-18 fiscal year.
But the government is hoping Edmontonians at least will find news of another bitter deficit easier to swallow when presented with the sweetness of a new hospital.