The new Flin Flon General Hospital emergency department is now scheduled to open to the public in early 2019.
Construction on the site is set to achieve substantial completion by the end of November, with the Northern Health Region (NHR) taking formal ownership of the project in “early 2019,” according to NHR CEO Helga Bryant.
At the recent NHR annual general meeting held in Flin Flon on Oct. 30, Bryant said the region was excited to expand and improve on the existing emergency department facility.
“We are really going to be pleased to be able to open a facility that allows emergency care for Flin Flon and the surrounding area, to be provided based on best practices and current good models of care.”
Plans for the emergency department were first announced in 2015. In Sept. 2017, with construction well underway, it was reported that staff would be able to move in by Feb. 2018.
Since then, a series of delays regarding bedrock at the new site has pushed the completion date forward, first to March 2018, then to the summer, then to the fall, with no firm dates announced in the previous two instances.
The initial total cost for the emergency department expansion has been estimated at about $25.2 million. Private fundraising is required to cover at least 10 per cent of the total project cost. The NHR has not confirmed whether or not delays or bedrock concerns will affect the estimated cost.
Bryant said improving on the previous emergency department site would allow the NHR to better compare wait times and time from admission for Flin Flon, allowing the NHR to not only compare the Flin Flon hospital with other northern facilities, but compare with facilities outside northern Manitoba.
“Measuring ED wait times is a primary goal in the provincial health care system and we can fully participate with those measurements,” said Bryant.
