A year ago, the Alberta NDP announced $65 million over four years to upgrade Edmonton’s Misericordia Hospital. On Thursday, officials revealed where the new, larger emergency department will be built.
READ MORE: $65M for Misericordia Hospital will include new emergency department
The addition, which will be on the west side of the hospital will triple the size of the current ER, expanding from 1,700-square metres to 5,000-square metres.
The province said the update will also add 34 treatment spaces, two more ambulance bays and two X-ray suites.
The existing emergency unit at the hospital was designed with a capacity of 25,000 but has served more than 50,000 patients over the past year, the NDP said.
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The new department will be able to accommodate 60,000 visits a year.
The design and floor plan for the project is scheduled to be complete “in the coming months,” the province said in a news release.
Site preparation and demolition is slated to start before the end of 2018.
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In its April 2017 announcement, the province said the modernization would include a new ER.
The current ER was built in 1969 and it was renovated in 1989.
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“The new emergency department will provide our care teams the opportunity to be and do their best in an expanded care environment based on best practice and modern standards and design,” Robert Black, the medical director for Covenant Health, said.
“We are excited to create a place of hope and healing for the people who depend on their Misericordia Hospital at some of the most vulnerable and challenging times in their lives.”
READ MORE: Edmonton’s Misericordia Hospital once again struck with flooding
The flood at the Misericordia in May 2013 forced more than 50 patients and more than 160 staff members to be transferred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Then in 2014, the hospital flooded twice in three weeks because of heavy rainfall.
Since then, there have been calls to replace the hospital, which was built in the 1960s. In 2014, the then-opposition Alberta NDP was among those calling for a replacement hospital.
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