Shortly after 6 a.m Saturday morning, the first patient transfer from the QEII Hospital to the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital began, and, with it, a decade long chapter in Grande Prairie came to a close.
Now open to the public, the $850 million facility houses 243 patient beds and a state-of-the-art cancer centre with two new radiation treatment areas and a healthcare training facility to work in partnership with Grande Prairie Regional College.
With the opening of the new facility, however, comes some fairly major changes to what services are available at the QEII. The emergency room at the old facility is now closed, and all emergency and obstetrics patients being asked to go to the GPRH. Services still available at the QEII include some ambulatory services, like dialysis and community based rehabilitation. Mackenzie Place Continuing Care Home will also remain open and will so no disruption in service.
Ahead of the transfers and official opening, members of the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital Foundation, along with donors, and dignitaries from both the city and province, including former Grande Prairie MLA Wayne Drysdale, held up placards just outside of the ambulance bay, welcoming staff for the first time.
Construction on the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital began back in 2011 and was temporarily paused in 2018 when there was a change in contractors. The first stage of construction on the facility was completed in 2020, at which point the keys were handed over to Alberta Health Services to complete commissioning work.
