Santé Courville looks to expand

Less than a year after they threatened to close beds over a lack of funding, Waterloo’s Santé Courville is looking to expand. Following the announcement that the Waterloo CHSLD, across the street, will be closing following the construction of a new long-term care facility in Granby, President Kenneth Courville said that the time and the circumstances are right for Santé Courville to step up.

“It is important to keep this service in Waterloo,” Courville said, explaining that the proposed expansion would see the existing CHSLD section of Santé Courville expand by 11 beds and add a new intermediate care area of 32 beds. “This project is a good fit for the community.”

The president said that, if approved, the new construction could be finished by December of 2018 and would result in 30-40 new jobs.

Courville explained that the project was presented to representatives of the CIUSSS de l’estrie – CHUS, the regional healthcare institution, on October 31. It is now being considered as one option among several propositions

“We have the space,” the president said, arguing that the expansion would be good not just for Santé Courville but for the whole community and saying that the home is ready to move ahead as soon as possible. Asked about the quick turnaround from last spring’s crisis to this new opportunity, Courville simply said that “last March we had one situation, that was dealt with, and now we have a different one.”

The Record reached out to Sylvie Moreault, Director of programs to support the autonomy of the elderly with the CIUSSS de l’estrie – CHUS, for a comment on the proposal and how it was received, but had not heard back by press time.