Full emergency and inpatient services returning to Devon hospital Sept. 7

All pre-pandemic services at the Devon General Hospital will resume on Sept. 7, Alberta Health Services announced on Friday.

In April 2020, the emergency department stopped accepting patients in an effort to protect the long-term care residents from the threat of COVID-19 and transitioned 10 acute-care beds to long-term care beds in an effort to provide more capacity for that type of care in the Edmonton region.

At 7 a.m. on Sept. 7, the emergency department will resume full, 24-hour operation.

As of Sept. 20, the 10 acute-care beds that were transitioned into long-term care beds will be transitioned back to inpatient family medicine beds.

1:46 Devon General Hospital to stop accepting emergency patients amid COVID-19

In a news release, AHS said it remains ready to enact temporary measures again if needed to protect patients, residents and communities.

The town of Devon is about 20 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.

1:52 AHS acute care and emergency capacity addressed in wake of recent bed closures

On Thursday, AHS announced it was temporarily closing five acute care beds at the hospital in McLennan.

Beds at the Sacred Heart Community Health Centre will go down to 15 from 20 until Sept. 7 “due to a staffing shortage,” AHS said.

The health agency said patient care will not be affected “as the site has sufficient capacity” for the eight patients currently admitted and “for additional patients as needed.”

The Edson Healthcare Centre is “pausing surgical services this weekend, including C-sections, due to a lack of anesthetist coverage,” AHS said Wednesday.

“Surgical services will not be available from Friday, Aug. 6, at 5 p.m. to Sunday, Aug. 8, at 10 p.m. No surgeries or C-sections were previously booked during this time.”

AHS said patients with higher-level care needs requiring C-sections or surgeries during this time will be sent to the Hinton Healthcare Centre about 86 kilometres away.

AHS launched a webpage to provide information regarding short-term, temporary bed reductions.