Rocky Mountain House hospital to get $10M operating room and update
Alberta announced on Sept. 10, 2021, it would spend nearly $10 million to build a new operating room at the Rocky Mountain House Health Care Centre.
EDMONTON -
The Alberta government is spending nearly $10 million to build a new operating room at the Rocky Mountain House Health Care Centre.
The central Alberta hospital currently has one operating room which sees about 60 surgeries performed each month, including endoscopies and minor procedures.
That will be rededicated full time to such procedures when the new surgical room is built, tripling the number of minor procedures done at the facility.
When it is built, the new operating room will see 120 surgeries performed each month, double current capacity.
The government money, being spent as part of the Alberta Surgical Initiative, will also be used to build a new medical device reprocessing department, where reusable instruments are cleaned and sterilized.
"This project has been a long time in the making. Our community has been advocating for enhanced services for at least 10 years," Mayor Tammy Burke said.
"I'm saddened this announcement is overshadowed by the quickly rising COVID-19 cases in our community but we look forward to the ground breaking for this project and seeing the expanded facilities and services up and running as soon as possible."
The Rocky Mountain House and Area Health Services Foundation will be fundraising to purchase equipment and support the hospital's programming.
Rocky Mountain House is about 200 kilometres southwest of the capital city.
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