Mental health supports will be moving to the new Grande Prairie Regional Hospital after it open. When it was revealed in November 2015 that the facility was $90 million over budget and likely two years behind schedule, the NDP government decided to keep the supports at the QEII Hospital to help cut costs.
Alberta Health Services Chief Zone Operator Greg Cummings now says the new hospital will have 28 acute mental health spaces, which is double what is currently at the QEII. They’re scheduled to open in 2021, roughly two years after the GPRH is slated to be finished.
“These new spaces will help provide high quality health care in a state-of-the-art facility,” Cummings says. “Being able to offer consolidated services in the community will benefit patients and help our staff continue to provide the safe and collaborative care this community needs and deserves.”
Two of 10 operating rooms slated for the new hospital were also cut, and renovations to the old one were put on hold. The new facility’s original budget was $647.5 million and it was scheduled to be done in April 2017.
Once done, it will have 172 ICU beds with room to add 60 more. It will also hold a cancer centre, obstetrics, diagnostic imaging, respiratory therapy, laboratory and pharmacy services, and 4,000 square metres for the nursing and medical careers program from the Grande Prairie Regional College.