OLDS — About 15 people gathered just outside Olds Hospital and Care Centre (OHCC) as Health Minister Tyler Shandro re-announced $1 million for facility renovations first announced in the March.`
It's part of $50 million earmarked for modernization and improvements at rural health facilities over the next three years.
The money for OHCC will be used to upgrade the hospital’s medical device reprocessing area, including cart washers and a washer disinfector. The work will be done later this year.
Those upgrades will make sure that medical devices used in the hospital are cleaned and sterilized properly — a process known as medical device reprocessing, which reduces the risk of infections.
Olds-Didsbury Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper said $1 million may not sound like much, given the province’s approximately $25 billion health-care budget, but it could help the hospital nearly double its surgery capacity.
OHCC site manager Wayne Krejci said the potential for that kind of expansion in surgery capacity is there “but there’d have to be some other work involved as far as staff in the (operating room) and that type of thing. But we do have the potential I guess eventually to look at running further into the evenings.”
Krejci was pleased by the announcement. He said it could lead to more money being pumped into the Olds economy.
“I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the hospital, for the zone. We do a lot of Red Deer surgeries out here so there’s potential for further expansion,” he said.
“I think with what it puts back in the community if we do more surgeries, if family members come down, there’s meals, there’s hotels, there’s gas involved. Plus, the labour base is in town.”
“The workload will be so much easier for the staff, much more efficient and safer for the clients,” he added.
On behalf of the town, Coun. Wanda Blatz thanked the province for the investment.
“It’s a very welcome addition to our hospital," she said.
Janice Stewart, Alberta Health Services Central Zone chief officer, said that’s not all the money that has been – or will be spent on OHCC.
She said at least $3.3 million was earmarked to make various improvements to the facility.
The Albertan asked Shandro why a special announcement was made for the spending of $1 million, but not the roughly $3 million.
He said, “the announcement’s for the revitalization fund that we announced in 2021 and making sure Albertans are aware of the capital investments that are happening – especially – a lot of them are in the investments that we’re making through the revitalization fund.”`
Melissa Ballantyne, manager of AHS Central Zone Communications and Community Engagement said the $3.3 million wasn’t specially announced because the work was part of the facility’s regular budget.
“That’s just part of what we factor into, like the general maintenance and things every year, so it wasn’t special funding, per se. This one is over and above. This is special funding,” she said.
