Boundary Trails Health Centre to get $64.4M expansion

A new two-storey community services building and an addition to the inpatient building are part of a $64.4-million expansion plan for southern Manitoba's Boundary Trails Health Centre.

The province announced the planFriday morning, saying the extra space is neededto support the communities surrounding the facility,located 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipegbetween Winkler and Morden.

"We're growing. When this place opened [in 2001] we were delivering 400 babies a year, now we deliver 1,000," said Cameron Friesen, MLA for the Morden-Winkler area and former health minister. "We need that acknowledgement of growth and that is what today represents."

Planning for the building is still being finalized but it is expected to allow a number of existing programs currently located elsewhere to be moved into the new space, including ambulatory care, cancer services, home care, education services, public health, health information services and administration,the province said in a news release.

Once programs and services have been relocated to the new community services building, renovations will begin on the vacated spaces in the existing health centre.

That will allow expanded spacefor several departments and programs, including surgery, as well as the addition of a retail pharmacy, the province said.

"This investment will help support the centre to serve as a district hub for the community and region, offering southern Manitobans many services that might currently require them to seek care in Winnipeg or other communities," said Health and Seniors Care Minister Audrey Gordon said at a news conference.

Construction on the new building, to be located adjacent to the current health centre, is expected to begin by summer 2022 and be completed by 2024.

A two-storey addition to the present inpatient building, enabling itto house 24 inpatient beds on one level and enhanced nursery capacity on the other, will begin around the same time.

The news of the expansion was welcomed byWinkler physicianand anaesthetistDr. Don Klassen, who has worked in the areafor 43 years and has been in the news more recently about thedivisiveness in southern Manitoba regarding COVID-19 vaccines and public health orders.

Winkleris oneof a handful of southern communities in the south where vaccine uptake is lowest in the province.

"The past 19 months have been challenging for all of us," Klassen said."It is such a pleasure to change the topic today."

One of Klassen's colleagues filed a police report a couple weeks ago after finding a disconcerting hand-written letter dropped off at his home, accusing him of pushing the COVID-19 vaccine on patients.

Klassen told CBC News last week that he and his colleagues regularly encounter patients at Boundary Trails Health Centre who refuse to be tested for COVID-19 or to disclose their vaccination status.

The Boundary Trails expansion plan will continue to improve health care and "benefit our communities long after the pandemic is a distant memory," he said Friday.

"Of course there will always be instances where travel to hospitals in our bigger cities is necessary to access more specialized care and services not available locally. But today's announcement means that many of us living in Winkler, Morden and the surrounding areas will increasingly be able to get the care we need closer to home."