By Curtis Galbraith

New Beaverlodge hospital not on AHS priority list

Jan 18, 2018 | 4:08 PM

There are more worries for those pushing to have a new hospital built in Beaverlodge.
 
The Beaverlodge hospital is not on a list of priorities submitted to the government by Alberta Health Services.
 
In response, County of Grande Prairie Council has approved a motion that would see local officials seek a meeting with infrastructure minister Sandra Jansen and health minister Sarah Hoffman.
 
County Reeve Leanne Beaupre says local people did a year’s worth of work in a month to prepare a business plan for the Beaverlodge hospital at the request of Alberta Health.
 
“We did it in a month, gave it to the minister of health and were assured that we were in the priority and in the queue and that there were millions of dollars, there was $3-million I believe in the budget, to do the drawings for rural health facilities so that they could duplicate them in other areas that require an update to some of their infrastructure.”
 
She adds being left off the list is upsetting, especially coming so soon after the province did away with that idea of having one design for new hospitals in several places.
 
“And to find out that they have not put the Beaverlodge hospital on as a priority for the infrastructure department is quite concerning in the fact that we are now back again in limbo and have no idea what’s happening with that health care facility.”
 
Beaupre says no rural projects were included on that priority list.
 
“They were all to the existing hospitals and to some other projects that Alberta Health has identified, which is quite concerning because Alberta Health Services had already committed that the Beaverlodge hospital was on their priority list and this year, it’s not on the 2018 priority list.”
 
In a written statement, Alberta Health says while the Beaverlodge hospital is not on this list, it remains on the AHS list of what it calls “potential future major projects.”
 
That same statement adds planned renovations to the roof, to fix flooding damage and to upgrade the nurse call and security systems at the existing facility will go ahead.  
 
GP Wapiti MLA Wayne Drysdale says he has also asked for a meeting with the Infrastructure Minister.