Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley makes commitments to the Red Deer Regional Hospital on Thursday at the Baymont by Wyndham hotel. (Behind L-R) Red Deer-South candidate Michelle Baer, Red Deer –North candidate Jaelene Tweedle and Health Critic David Shepherd.  (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Rachel Notley makes committments

Alberta NDP says documents show two year delay in Red Deer Hospital expansion; UCP says false

Jan 19, 2023 | 5:32 PM

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley says UCP documents show the estimated completion date for the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre (RDRHC) expansion project has been delayed by up to two years. However, the provincial government says the project is still on schedule.

Notley held a press conference in Red Deer on Thursday at the Baymont by Wyndham hotel (4311 49 Ave), proclaiming her government will make three commitments for the future of the hospital. She was accompanied by Red Deer –North candidate Jaelene Tweedle, Red Deer-South candidate Michelle Baer and Health Critic David Shepherd.

Just two days earlier, Alberta’s Minister of Infrastructure, Nathan Neudorf, announced the provincial government would be hosting a public information session to provide an update on the project. They did not give further details on what would be discussed.

READ: Public information session on Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre redevelopment project

Notley says her government would commit the following:

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• Press forward urgently with the expansion of the Red Deer Hospital and explore any opportunity to speed up the timeline
• Ensure the current and future hospitals are fully staffed, as a part of their plan to recruit and train new healthcare workers
• Be transparent with the project’s timeline and communicate any changes

  (Rachel Notley YouTube)

“The UCP’s handling of the Red Deer Regional Hospital expansion has been chaotic and incompetent leadership and it is unacceptable,” said Notley. “The people in Red Deer and throughout central Alberta deserve honesty and transparency and for the Red Deer Regional Hospital to be a priority. Not more secrecy and empty promises from the UCP.”

With the recommendation for a hospital expansion dating back to 2014 in the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre Master Plan, the project was left off the Alberta Health Services (AHS) health care infrastructure priority list in 2018 by the former NDP government, in power from 2015-2019. At the press conference, Notley said AHS recommended other priorities at the time while they had “fewer resources”.

“It took us, quite honestly, I’ll be very frank, a couple of years to reconsider that and overrule that and decide that ‘no, we needed to get this back on the active list’ which is what we did while still in government,” said Notley, adding that since that time, the pressures at the hospital have grown. “Because of the unique position that Red Deer occupies as a city that offers a pretty full range of specialized services yet in a smaller setting, the pressures have perhaps been felt more intensely here and the need has grown at a greater rate.”

In 2019, she says the Alberta NDP put back the project on their priority list, creating a Multi‐Year Health Facility Infrastructure Capital Submission plan to redesign how governments would communicate to Albertans about capital construction. She says they also funded preliminary scoping work for the hospital expansion and commitment to its recommendations.

READ: Red Deer Regional Hospital expansion back on AHS high priority list

Under the following UCP government, the hospital expansion project was initially left out of their first capital budget. In 2020, the government anticipated construction would begin the following year. In November 2022, Premier Danielle Smith announced a 2030/31 estimated completion date for the project alongside site details.

READ MORE:

Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre expansion not part of Alberta’s budget

Red Deer Regional Hospital expansion expected to begin next fall

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However, the NDP say, according to the recent Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Prime Consultant Services document posted for open response on January 12, the new anticipated completion date for construction is 2032 and 2033 for post construction. The date for construction to begin is still undetermined.

“Sadly, this news will likely not come as a surprise to the hospital staff and everyone that relies on the hospital’s services,” said Baer, who referenced patients waiting up to 18 hours at the hospital’s emergency department. “This is just another failed commitment to the people of Red Deer by the UCP. When we are in government, we will get the hospital expansion done and address the crisis in healthcare all across Alberta.”

READ: Nurses report patient safety concerns daily at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

However, Minister Neudorf responded that this statement was incorrect and that the project is still on track for completion in 2030/31.

“The 2032/2033 date referred to from the RFP is the total contract period for a Prime Consultant. It’s standard industry practice to retain a Prime Consultant beyond completion for complex projects like the Red Deer Hospital, to address any warranty issues, minor deficiency completions, and to support the building handover and commissioning,” he said in a statement.

“Alberta’s government will continue to have transparent and open communication with the City of Red Deer about this project as it proceeds.”

STAFFING

“The chaos in our healthcare system and the need to improve the Red Deer Hospital is top of mind for many here,” said Tweedle. “Last week, I spoke with a nurse new to the Red Deer Hospital who was shocked to see how underserved and understaffed our hospital is and how it is literally bursting at the seams. We must take action — and I can promise you that Michelle, Rachel and myself will end the chaos in our healthcare system.”

In a response, Alberta Health Services said that four new physicians have been hired for the Emergency Department in a new mentoring role and clinical and physician assistants are being recruited to support physicians.

They also said surgical services have seen recent success in recruiting seven full time anesthesiologists, one currently practicing in Red Deer, and three more expected to arrive in February. For the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), in 2022, they say eight new spaces were added, bringing the hospital’s ICU capacity to 20 beds.

“Despite capacity pressures, RDRHC continues to provide a full suite of surgical services for patients. At this time, no procedures have been postponed and both emergency and scheduled cases continue to be seen as quickly as possible,” AHS said in a statement.

Steve Buick, Press Secretary for the Minister of Health, added that although more doctors are needed, he states the province, and Red Deer in particular, have seen big gains in 2022.

According to a quarterly report titled Physician Resources in Alberta by the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta, the province gained 254 more fully-registered physicians last year while Red Deer saw a nearly eight per cent increase with 23 new fully-registered physicians.

P3 APPROACH

Notley ended her conference by stating she would not pursue a public-private partnerships (P3) approach, which allows governments to hire one contractor to fully design, build, finance, and maintain a facility. She believes the approach causes delays and speculates it may be one reason for the hospital’s postponement. Minister Neudorf responded that the delivery model for the project has not been determined yet.