Province plans to add inpatient beds, surgeries at Sherwood Park hospital

The province will spend $2 million to look at how much it would cost to expand the Sherwood Park hospital that was built in 2014.

A previous version of this story suggested surgeries are already being done at Strathcona Community Hospital. In fact, it currently does not have surgical capacity. — TThe province is spending $2 million to start planning a major expansion of Sherwood Park’s hospital that will see the addition of inpatient care and surgeries at the facility.

Matt Jones, Alberta’s minister of hospital and surgical health services, announced Monday the planned expansion would add up to 120 inpatient beds and four surgical suites to the Strathcona Community Hospital, which opened in 2014. The hospital currently provides primary health care, community-based services, a 24-hour emergency department and on-site diagnostic services.

Nate Glubish, the MLA for Strathcona-Sherwood Park, said Monday’s announcement “is evidence of our government’s commitment to build additional acute care capacity in the capital region.”

“It just makes sense to expand it here in Sherwood Park, because we already have a world-class facility that is ideally located to serve the northeast capital region,” Glubish said during a media conference at the hospital. “We already have the land, and (the hospital) was originally designed with the intent of expansion.”

Jones said the hospital would see more than 4,000 surgeries performed there annually with the addition of the four operating rooms. Other additions anticipated include two endoscopy procedure rooms, specialized ambulatory clinics, expanded diagnostic imaging, pharmacy and laboratory services, a hemodialysis unit, and integrated mental health supports.

He said a business case for the hospital will be developed over the next year, putting forward the scope and costs of the expansion to submit for next year’s budget.