Health Minister Adriana LaGrange will announce planning funds for new urgent care facilities across Alberta. Courtesy/Government of Alberta

By Eli J. Ridder

HEALTH CARE

Cypress County urgent care centre details not included in Alberta announcement

Mar 28, 2025 | 3:45 PM

The Alberta government says planned urgent care facilities it revealed Friday will help alleviate pressure placed on hospital emergency rooms by providing another avenue for front-line health care.

While MLA Justin Wright in early March revealed one of the centres will be built in Cypress County, he did not give any further details during a news conference in Airdrie.

The province listed “Medicine Hat” as the location in its announcement but it wasn’t immediately clear why there was a discrepancy. CHAT News has requested comment from Wright’s office.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said the province is investing $15 million in its 2025 budget to build eight urgent care centres with the aim of redirecting up to 200,000 non-life threatening emergency department visits annually.

With visits to emergency departments projected to increase 27 per cent by 2038, the care sites will play an important role in the overall health system, LaGrange explained.

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The centres are designed to treat non-life-threatening health concerns that require same-day or evening care, according to Alberta Health Services. They can help take the strain off hospitals as they allow people to seek treatment for minor injuries and sickness without requiring an emergency room visit.

“Urgent care centres help bridge the gap between primary care and emergency departments, providing timely care for non-life-threatening conditions,” LaGrange said in a statement.

The other locations announced Friday include two in Edmonton, Westview, east Calgary, Cold Lake, Fort McMurray and Lethbridge. No timelines were given.

Southern Alberta has faced fresh health care challenges in recent weeks.

A pair of physicians that served the County of Forty Mile closed their practices earlier this month, leaving a gap in primary care for hundreds of people who live south and west of Medicine Hat.

That left the communities of Bow Island and Foremost with only one family physician and the Bow Island Health Centre with shortened hours, at least temporarily.

The emergency department at Milk River Health Centre is often closed due to physician staffing shortages.

The urgent care centres are not the only Medicine Hat-area healthcare investment announced in the budget.

The government has set aside $5 million of health care capital funding to “enhance ICU capacity” in both Medicine Hat and Lethbridge.