Residents at the hospital will be transferred to Mountain View Seniors' Housing new facility when it opens ó no jobs will be lost, said Sarah Hoffman
The Sundre Hospital and Care Centre is not about to close, patients residing in the 15 long-term care beds will be relocated to the new facility, and jobs will not be lost, the health minister told the Round Up last week.
"We’re going to ensure that everyone can transition from within the community," said Sarah Hoffman on Friday, March 18 during a phone interview over Alberta Health Services’ recent announcement that the 15 long-term care beds at the hospital will be decommissioned.
The hospital’s 15 beds will be replaced by 40 new supportive living (SL4) beds at the Mountain View Seniors’ Housing’s (MVSH) campus of care, which opens this summer. According to doctors, two patients in the hospital’s long-term beds will require a higher level of care, which will be seen to. Although originally designed as SL4 beds, the MVSH’s new units can be adapted to meet a higher level of care, she said.
"They get to move from a hospital that’s over 40 years old into the new facility and get the appropriate level of care," she said, adding "we certainly have the ability to serve them in the new facility."
AHS is working with families to ensure a smooth transition, and Hoffman said, "everyone who wants to stay in town can. Everyone’s going to be grandfathered over to the new facility."
Responding to the community’s concerns, Hoffman underscored that AHS has no intention of shutting down the hospital.
"The hospital’s staying open, and we’ll make sure it continues to serve people of the region," she said, adding a public consultation will be planned to help determine how to best utilize the space that will be left vacant once the beds are decommissioned.
AHS will also be working with staff who are going to be impacted by the closure of the long-term care beds at the hospital, she said.
"There will be options for people to stay in Sundre," she said, later adding, "Everyone will have somewhere to land. We need more nurses, not less."
When asked what assurances other municipalities have that AHS won’t target any of their hospitals’ beds for closure, Hoffman said officials are welcoming feedback from the public and that patients are being placed in the best facilities possible.
One of AHS’ top priorities is to provide new, bright and modern facilities. But getting input from Albertans is also a priority. The minister encourages anyone with concerns to either reach out to their local MLA or her own office to discuss ways to improve the process.
