Riverside Health Care Facilities Inc. and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care still are working out the details over the plans for Phase IV renovations at La Verendrye hospital here, but CEO Wayne Woods said work should begin next spring.
“Hopefully, by mid-January, we’ll have a confirmation,” he noted.
“Right now, we’re submitting the construction documents to the ministry. We’re hoping to get the go-ahead and get a start this spring,” Woods added.
Woods noted the delay (he originally had hoped things would get underway by the end of this year) simply has been a matter of fine-tuning the plans to the province’s specifications.
But he also stressed no compromises to the improvements to the hospital have been made.
The $8-million-plus job—originally estimated at $5.5 million before the ministry’s recommendations—will include improvements or total overhauls to the X-ray department, emergency room, operating rooms, and lab.
The expansion also would include re-locating the dialysis unit, which has been operational at La Verendrye for about 10 months, and possibly a computerized tomography (CT) imaging unit, which has the ability to image a combination of soft tissue, bone, and blood vessels—something Woods noted would be “very beneficial.”
“It’s one of the things we made space for in the plans. But it will have to be another thing we look at after we get this done. We’ll have to go through another process,” Woods had remarked previously.
The extensive overhaul—which could take 18 months to two years to complete—will be funded by both the Riverside Foundation for Health Care’s “Care Close to Home” campaign and the provincial government.
The work, which will be done in phases, is not expected to disrupt medical care to patients.
