Construction will begin this month on an additional 60 new inpatient beds for the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital. The project phase is expected to create around 184 construction and related jobs in the Grande Prairie area.
Work will be done in a shelled space and is expected to be done by roughly this time next year. The funding was part of the province’s 2020-2023 capital plan. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jason Luan says mental health and addiction recovery is an ongoing priority within the province.
“People in Grande Prairie and surrounding communities will now have access to the excellent treatment and recovery care available in our province,” he says.
A new 28-bed mental health unit is set to replace the existing 18-bed unit at the existing QEII Hospital. This will be a 50 per cent increase to inpatient mental health care capacity within Grande Prairie.
After nearly 10 years of construction, the 240-bed hospital was turned over to Alberta Health Services to start operational commissioning earlier this month. It is expected to open to the public by mid-2021.