Medicine Hat Regional Hospital

By Charles Lefebvre

Surgical wait times

$100 million investment announced to improve operating rooms across Alberta

Mar 4, 2020 | 3:41 PM

EDMONTON, AB — The United Conservative Party announced an investment into emergency rooms across Alberta in an attempt to reduce surgical wait times.

Premier Jason Kenney, along with Health Minister Tyler Shandro, announced $100 million towards operating room expansions across Alberta Wednesday afternoon, with the goal of allowing more surgeries to be performed in the province.

“This funding from Budget 2020 will drive down wait times with necessary and overdue upgrades to hospital operating rooms and equipment across the province,” Kenney said in a statement. Ultimately, we will make sure our health-care system has the capacity and the staff to deliver the best access to surgery in Canada.”

The money will go towards upgrades to 12 operating rooms at Foothills hospital in Calgary, and low-risk surgeries will be moved out of the hospital and offered in Canmore, High River and independent surgical facilities in Calgary, according to a news release.

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The funding also includes renovations to operating departments at the Rocky Mountain House Health Centre, along with renovations at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton.

For the south zone, the plan is combine two smaller operating rooms into a larger space for complex surgeries at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge.

Renovations to the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital were also announced. A Spokesperson with Alberta Health says an estimated $2.2 million will go towards renovations to the pre-admission clinic. A start date for the project is not yet known.

Shandro says the investment will allow Albertans to get the care they need closer to home.

“All these efforts will help us to reach our goals to provide 17,000 surgeries this fiscal year, and 80,000 new surgeries in the next 3 years,” he said.