Red Deer hospital project not paused, gov’t says, despite doctor’s social media claim

Parks’s post, which was reposted more than 130 times, and liked more than 340 times, did not include a source, however.

This story was published Thursday, and Parks responded to our request for comment Friday morning.

“Government will quibble with the word ‘paused’ simply to distract from the important point: the building of desperately needed hospital capacity in Red Deer will be ‘further delayed.’ Government confirms this very fact in their reply,” says Parks.

‘How much money and time has been spent and wasted thus far? What makes the government confident that a ‘new procurement process’ will be cheaper or ever come to fruition? Red Deer needed this capacity years ago.”

Meantime, Infrastructure spokesperson Benji Smith says the claim is simply false, explaining that this is a case of moving away from the proposed Public-Private-Partnership (P3) model.

“The project is in two parts: project one is the largest portion and includes the new patient tower, centralized power plant, and expansion and renovation of the hospital; project two is the development of the external ambulatory clinic building,” Smith elaborates.

“For project one, which is being managed by Clark Builders, early site work is complete, demolition of the annex building will begin shortly, and construction of the new patient tower is already underway.”

According to Smith, it was recently determined project two would not proceed as a P3, and instead transition to a design-build model.

“One of the main determining factors when choosing to go down the path for a P3 is value for money. In this case, we went to procurement, received proposals and the value for money was not there. This is all part of the P3 process and is proof that the process works,” he opines.

“Work is already underway to begin the new procurement process for this project and we will have more to say as it develops.”

Alberta NDP Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Jasvir Deol, says the UCP’s story about the hospital keeps changing.

“While this UCP government is in the midst of their CorruptCare scandal Albertans cannot trust the UCP’s procurement process for any project,” Deol said Thursday.

“If we’re going down the path of a ‘design-build’ approach, Albertans will have a lot of questions on who will be chosen for this contract.”

Infrastructure’s Smith said finally, “With the transition to design-build for the ambulatory building, any impacts to schedule are not known at this time.”

Previous reports indicate the overall redevelopment project is scheduled for completion sometime in 2030 or 2031.

The project will add a new patient tower, six new operating rooms, a new medical device reprocessing department, two cardiac catheterization labs, main building renovations, emergency department renovations and expansions, a new ambulatory clinic building, and a net increase of 200 inpatient beds.

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by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Red Deer hospital project not paused, gov’t says, despite doctor’s social media claim

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