After funding for the health care facility in Beaverlodge was put into limbo in 2016, planning is moving ahead. With direction from the Beaverlodge Health Services Taskforce, Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman announced that plans will go ahead for facility but they still don’t know the cost or when it will be happening.
“The Grande Prairie hospital has been quite the project and I don’t want to do that anywhere else in the province with announcements made for dollar figures without having real plans. This is why we are so pleased that AHS is doing this planning work up front so we know what the cost will be.”
Alberta Health Services has invested in a needs assessment for the planning. Hoffman says this is the next step.
“The business plan process is the next step. Around incorporating feedback received from the Taskforce into what would be an appropriate model and appropriate operational configuration for our building. Whether it would clinic space as well as hospital space.”
Although there is no timeline for the building, where it is going to be built is known. Doris McFarland and her family donated land located near the Esso on the way in from Grande Prairie. McFarland worked as a nurse in Beaverlodge for 35 years and feels like a lot of things have changed since then.
“It was after I worked here for quite a while that we decided to put a picture on the wall. I notice now there are some gorgeous things on the wall.”
McFarland says nursing has change over the years but the T-L-C stays the same within the walls of the hospital in Beaverlodge.