City’s neglected infrastructure gets $1-billion boost
Health spending plan allows for $400M so new west-end facility can get started
Edmonton’s badly neglected health infrastructure got some relief in Thursday’s provincial budget, with more than $1 billion set aside for new projects in the coming year’s capital plan.
Besides a brand new suburban hospital, the list of approved facilities includes two additions to the Royal Alexandra Hospital campus, upgrades to the Misericordia Community Hospital and a new centralized pharmacy facility.
Details on the projects, including total estimated costs, locations and timelines, have yet to be revealed.
The approvals, while welcome news to many, will undoubtedly fall short of the expectations of some advocates who have been campaigning for more complete overhauls of the aging Royal Alex and Misericordia.
As well, the budget set aside just $20 million over two years for a new medical testing lab in the city, a project that has been pegged at $325 million.
As for the new hospital, the government will get the project going with an initial investment of $400 million to be rolled out between 2018 and 2020, although the facility will end up costing considerably more and take several years to build.
While the city has received additions to existing hospitals in recent years, it has not seen an entirely new hospital constructed since 1988 when the Grey Nuns was completed.
One potential site for the new hospital is a parcel of Crown land at 127 Street and Anthony Henday Drive, which had been considered a potential location for rebuilding the Misericordia.
The aging west-end hospital will not get rebuilt, but instead will have to make do with a “modernization,” particularly to its emergency department.
The budget has set aside $65 million over the next four years for that project.
Also featured in the capital budget is $520 million for two projects on the Royal Alex campus — a new child and youth mental health building pegged at $155 million and an overhaul of CapitalCare Norwood, which provides continuing care and restorative care services.
The $364 million set aside for Norwood is $100 million more than a recent Alberta Health Services estimate for the project.
The capital budget contains little money for any rural health projects, although there is $580 million that has been left unallocated.
The budget also featured a substantial hike for addictions and mental health — to $80.5 million from $49 million — much of which will go toward addressing the province’s growing opioid crisis.