As the new Flin Flon ER clears another hurdle, the Northern Health Region (NHR) is promising to keep the community’s fundraising requirement as affordable as possible.
The NHR recently unveiled finalized schematic design for the ER, laying out the footprint, rooms and interior walls of the state-of-the-art hospital addition.
That sets the stage for one of the final phases of the project before tender: design development, which will see staff and patients offer input into the interior design of the rooms.
Helga Bryant, chief executive officer of the NHR, hopes to see design development begin shortly.
“We’re all ready to go, so as soon as we get [government] approval we will be right at it,” said Bryant.
“We’re hoping that we can plan this in a way that will serve Flin Flon well in the next number of decades.”
Approvals
Once design development concludes, Bryant said the provincially funded project will be subject to further approvals and another cost estimate.
Officials anticipate the project will go to tender sometime this spring. The ER is expected to open in late 2017 or early 2018.
A Manitoba law requires community fundraising to cover 10 per cent of the cost of the project at the time the tender is awarded. If that is not possible, the amount doubles to 20 per cent.
Bryant said the 20 per cent cost will be averted. If need be, she said, the NHR could borrow any outstanding amount on the 10 per cent tab.
The NHR is also hopeful that the Saskatchewan government will help foot the fundraising bill given the high volume of Flin Flon hospital patients who live in that province.
Jeremy Harrison, a Saskatchewan government cabinet minister, said such a request is “slightly unusual” for his province given that it does not have a fundraising requirement for health care projects.
Speaking at a public forum last month in Creighton, Harrison said he is not the health minister and would not prejudge the cross-border discussions to come.
Bryant said the NHR continues to work toward keeping the ER project at its original cost estimate of $22 million.
“We know before it goes to tender what the bid should really come in at, so it really isn’t a surprise when the actual tenders come in,” she said.
Bryant, a veteran of health care administration, previously helped plan two other new ERs, one in Winnipeg and the other in Brandon.
She is delighted to be part of the Flin Flon project.
“I love this kind of stuff,” she said. “I think it’s exciting. For staff to be involved in a capital project like this is a once-in-a-career kind of opportunity.”
