Red Deerians will be waiting a bit longer before they see an expansion to the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, including the addition of a cardiac catheterization lab.
Red Deer-North MLA and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said she has been in talks with Health Minister Tyler Shandro.
“I have been advocating as has my colleague MLA Jason Stephan, we’ve been advocating very, very strongly for the hospital and an expansion,” LaGrange Said.
In 2018, Alberta Health Services released a report on the need for interventional cardiac services outside of the major centres such as Edmonton or Calgary.
The report said that the development of Catheterization and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention capabilities in Red Deer would cost around $19-$20.5 million to build and $7-$8.5 million to run annually.
It is estimated that the services could allow up to 10 per cent of patients to receive care closer to home.
“The people of Red Deer have spoken very, very loudly," LaGrange said. "We’ve been able to make the case to Minister Shandro of the disparity in funding from other provincial areas of the province, how we as a city have received less per capita over the decade, the past decade. We have shared that information with him and we are hoping for some very positive results."
No timeline for an expansion has been set.
