Grande Prairie Regional Hospital (photo by Liam Verster)

By Liam Verster

Grande Prairie Regional Hospital

Construction of new hospital on track, despite COVID-19 pandemic

Mar 26, 2020 | 1:06 PM

Construction on the new Grande Prairie Regional Hospital has not been slowed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is still on track to be completed by this summer.

MLA for Grande Prairie, Tracy Allard, says the supply chain has seen minimal impacts from the pandemic, meaning workers on the site are still able to get all the supplies they need in order to continue their work.

She says the general contractor, Clark Builders, has not had to reduce their workforce due to the pandemic. Allard says the workers are scheduled in a way to strategically “gain time back” with about 500 workers can be on site working during peak mid-week days, and about half that number making up the crews who work the out-days on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Allard says that while on site, the workers are not only following the Occupational Health and Safety regulations, but the government’s provisions to reduce the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak as well.

“We’ve had some questions about the safety of workers, you know with the self-isolation and that kind of thing, but the good news is the general contractor is well aware of the requirements. And the site itself is several-thousand(s of) square-feet, so workers working within the site, at the pace they have been, they still have adequate space for social distancing within the site. But, if there’s any workers that are concerned, they’re welcome to reach out to my office.”

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Allard says her office has heard from people voicing their concern over workers travelling to and from Grande Prairie to work on this project, but at this time, she’s not concerned that travelling workers will lead to an outbreak of COVID-19.

“I think if people were travelling on international flights, that would be a very different conversation. But, if you’re travelling back and forth from Edmonton or Calgary, and you’re following all of the other protocols, you haven’t had symptoms yourself, you haven’t been around somebody with symptoms, you are self isolating, you’re not going to mass gatherings, all of those things, it should be reasonable for those people to come and go within the province. I don’t see that that poses any greater risk.”

She adds that frequent hand washing is the best thing that people can do to stop any potential spread of the virus, and that people need to take it upon themselves to self-isolate if they are arriving from out of the country or have any of the symptoms. She says it’s for the greater good of the community to take responsibility, and do what is needed to reduce the risk of an outbreak.

Though construction is still expected to be completed this summer, Allard says there may be some delays with the turnover to Alberta Health Services (AHS). AHS has said it’s a six to nine month window to commission the hospital, which involves moving in and testing all the equipment, but Allard says that time line may have to be changed.

“The mitigation standard for infection control in a hospital is, obviously, the highest standard that there is. So, you can’t compare a hospital project to even a school or an office building, the standards are so much higher because you’re operating on people and you’re dealing with people who are, potentially, critically ill. And so they have to take the time to make sure that every single system is running as it should, before we can actually service future patients in the facility.”

Allard says she will be speaking with AHS soon, and expects to find out more details of the time line needed between taking control of the hospital, and opening it to the public.

She says once the project is handed over to AHS, a review will be done on the construction project, in order to identify all the steps that we’re taken to “put it on the wrong” path. Through this review, the government will be able to find the inefficiencies and issues the project faced, and create a plan to ensure that future project and builds are not as mismanaged as the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital.