After years of waiting, the doors of the Strathcona Community Hospital are just weeks away from opening.
The $130 million facility will provide the more than 90,000 residents of Strathcona County with laboratory services, CT scans, diagnostic imaging and urgent care.
Three weeks before it’s set to open, Alberta Health Services offered a peek inside the facility.
While some residents said they’re relieved to have access to urgent care closer to home, others question its name. With no surgical space inside, some said the facility is little more than a clinic.
“There is a little pain in this community, a little frustration,” Strathcona County Mayor Roxanne Carr said. “Before we move on it must be expressed.
“We believe we still need in-patient beds and operating theatres, they believe it’s a necessity for our growing community.”
Carr said she plans to continue pushing for hospital expansion.
“There are a lot of things that people want, but when we look at what the needs are here, what people are concerned the most about is travelling into Edmonton multiple times,” Health Minister Fred Horne said. “A lot of what’s delivered here eliminates the need for that.”
The facility has gone through various stages over several years – construction on the facility started originally in 2007, with an expected completion in 2009.
However, that original project was put in limbo when the economy ground to a halt – although construction started again the next year.
Meanwhile, the planned final product also changed, with plans for a 72-bed community hospital, before changing to an urgent-care centre.
The current construction was also supposed to be the first phase of a multi-phase, fully-functioning hospital, with an emergency room, surgical suites, and other hospital services – although those plans were cut in the 2013 budget.
Public tours of the hospital are being offered into the weekend, it will go into operation May 21.
With files from Ashley Molnar
