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Nanton and its municipal companions had hoped that development on a multi-million greenback renovation and growth to the southern Alberta city’s getting old well being centre would have began this spring.
However to the frustration of municipal officers, it hasn’t labored out like that.
Nanton mayor Jennifer Handley says they’re nonetheless ready on Alberta Well being Companies (AHS) and the province to decide to the proposed mission on the Nanton Group Well being Centre, owned and managed by the city of Nanton and the neighbouring municipal districts of Willow Creek and Ranchland.
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“We’ve the plans. They’re all drafted, they’re all permitted by AHS,” mentioned Handley throughout an interview with Postmedia. “Everyone seems to be content material with what it’s going to appear to be.”
The plans had been prepared final fall and a proposed timeline put forth by the municipalities, which might pay the development prices, referred to as for the work to start this spring, however then got here the province’s announcement final fall that Alberta Well being Companies was being dismantled. After which Handley heard Monday that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has plans to switch hospitals away from AHS, creating “one other change to navigate.”
“We’ve a clinic that’s almost 60 years outdated,” mentioned Handley. “It’s not appropriate for its function. We have to construct a brand new clinic, and that’s the actuality, so any modifications to (AHS) creates delays.
“It doesn’t change the truth that this clinic is long gone its expiration date.”
Nanton has a “comparatively steady” clinic, with little doctor turnover, mentioned Handley. That’s not one thing each neighborhood can boast, she added.
“My concern is that if we don’t present an appropriate clinic for these medical doctors that we’ll lose them,” mentioned Nanton’s mayor.
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Surrounding cities, together with Excessive River, Claresholm and Fort Macleod, all have hospitals, however Nanton has extra restricted companies — such because the household medical clinic in addition to lab companies, physiotherapy, and diabetes and immunization applications — at its well being centre, Handley factors out.
“We have to determine this out,” she mentioned. “It’s past acceptable anymore.”
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Building on the proposed expanded and renovated clinic would take an estimated 18 months to finish, and was pegged final November to price roughly $5.47 million.
A proposed timeline had health-care employees working out of the upgraded facility within the fall of 2025, with a short lived clinic arrange on quite a bit subsequent to the ability throughout development.
The 56-year-old construction must be renovated “as evidenced by accessibility points, lack of design consideration to energy-efficiency and security,” says a November 2023 proposal to AHS from the Nanton Well being Centre Administration Committee, comprised of representatives from the three municipalities.
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Research have indicated the present facility has “reached the tip of its lifespan as a medical clinic and {that a} substitute facility is required,” says the proposal.
“The (three) municipalities who type the Nanton Well being Centre Administration Committee, the physicians and workers who work within the Well being Centre and the customers of the ability all agree that endeavor this mission just isn’t solely required however is lengthy overdue,” it says.
Handley says the municipal companions, which have been engaged on the mission for years, will proceed to foyer AHS and the Alberta authorities for approval. Alberta Well being minister Adriana LaGrange, parliamentary secretary for rural well being Martin Lengthy and native MLA Chelsae Petrovic, parliamentary secretary for well being workforce engagement, are all conscious of Nanton’s want for a brand new health-care facility, she added.
“We have to maintain Nanton prime of thoughts with this with the provincial authorities and AHS, and simply discover a technique to make this occur,” mentioned Handley.
A quick Alberta Well being Companies assertion to Postmedia mentioned merely that it “continues to evaluation future lease issues in relation to house inside the Nanton Group Well being Centre.”
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