New hospital won’t be ready for almost a decade
Huge project requires at least three years of planning and six years of construction
Edmontonians awaiting a “desperately needed” new hospital in the city’s southwest will have to stay patient for nearly a decade before the new facility opens its doors, provincial leaders said Tuesday.
The massive, complex project requires three years of planning and development work before ground can even be broken in late 2020, followed by six years of construction time, the leaders said.
That means the hospital will begin treating its first patients sometime in 2026, provided there are no major delays.
“I’m pretty confident this is the right choice, and I’m pretty confident that you are going to see a hospital here with the doors opening in roughly nine years,” Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday, standing amid the chosen site south of Ellerslie Road at 127 Street.
“And you can take that to the bank.”
The timeline raises questions as to how well the city’s overburdened hospitals can survive another decade before the new facility opens.
Alberta Health Services projections suggest the growing capital region would need 1,000 additional acute care beds by 2030, far more than the 350 to 500 beds planned for the new suburban hospital.
However, the health authority said Tuesday those forecasts have now been revised downward, in part because estimates of the region’s population growth have been lowered.
As well, AHS CEO Verna Yiu noted the health system is in the midst of a transformation to reduce hospital use by treating more people at home or in community settings.
“When we try to do some of our projections, it’s taking into account the new service model where we really want to enhance care in the community as much as possible,” she said. “So it’s not based on the status quo of what we do now, but what we will be doing in 10 years.”
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said there may also be opportunities in the coming years to add capacity to some of Edmonton’s existing hospitals.
Two of those hospitals — the 48-year-old Misericordia in the west end and the 55-year-old Royal Alexandra north of downtown — both propose to build new bed towers to replace their aging patient wards.
The government’s decision to instead make a new suburban hospital the priority was based on a number of factors including time, cost and need, the health leaders said.
Hoffman, for example, cited the advantages of building on an open field, saying, “It is easier for us to do construction on sites that aren’t already quite congested.”
Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason said the location already has environmental and geotechnical studies completed, and noted the government owns the land, which should make the project cheaper and faster.
… I’m pretty confident that you are going to see a hospital here with the doors opening in roughly nine years.
The site’s proximity to the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, Anthony Henday Drive and the Edmonton International Airport was also mentioned.
But perhaps the most important factor influencing the decision was the need to provide better health services in an area of Edmonton that has seen massive growth, the health leaders said.
Rhiannon Hoyle, president of the Heritage Point Community League that represents nine neighbourhoods in the area, said southwest residents have been clamouring for years to have a nearby hospital that can provide faster emergency response.
She said it takes her 20 to 30 minutes in rush hour to reach the Grey Nuns hospital in Mill Woods, which could be too long if her youngest son’s severe allergies flare up.
Much of the planning work still to be done involves consultations to determine the mix of services that will be included in the new facility.
Yiu said she suspects the need at this point is for a “very generalist sort of hospital,” with a focus on labour and delivery services, rather than a facility with a lot of specialized programs.