MH hospital receives $2.2M as part of $100M government spend

By GILLIAN SLADE on March 5, 2020.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade

The government has announced more than $2 million in funding for Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.

In an announcement of $100 million to help hospitals across the province upgrade their operating rooms and provide more surgeries to Albertans, MHRH will receive about $2.2 million.

“For Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, the funding will go towards renovations to the pre-admission clinic,” said a spokesperson for Alberta Health. “As surgical volumes increase, more space will be needed.”

Alberta Health Services did not have details on Wednesday afternoon about specific renovations to the “pre-admission” clinic.

The spokesperson for Alberta Health said “more details will be shared as the project gets underway.”

The $100-million funding across the province will mean an extra 17,000 surgeries to be done in the 2020-21 fiscal year and about 30,000 more yearly by 2023, said Tyler Shandro, minister of health.

There are to be renovations to operating rooms and some new surgical suites in Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie and Lethbridge.

Shandro says some low-risk surgeries are to be moved from major hospitals to regional ones, and more private clinics are to be used to do operations covered under medicare.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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