It was the end of a decade-long journey to have a facility in Kelvington that had all medical services under one roof.
The residents of the long-term care facility – Kelvindell Lodge – celebrated the opening of the $15 million integrated health care facility, which includes them, the hospital and a medical clinic, June 8.
“It’s a wonderful day,” said Shane Merriman, Kelsey Trail Health Region’s CEO. “It brings everything to a conclusion in terms of the project.”
Rennie Harper, Kelsey Trail’s chair, said it was a decade ago that the health region and the Kelvington community started to discuss replacing the hospital, which was four or five blocks away from the long-term care facility. She said there was duplication of services, like the food service, so they started to talk about combining the two facilities.
“Integrated health facilities had been tossed around a little bit and we thought it would be an ideal situation for Kelvington,” she said.
So the new hospital was built beside Kelvindell Lodge. It was opened in June 2016. Then Kelvindell Lodge was renovated. The residents were moved from wing to wing as the renovations were done. That was completed March 2017.
Merriman said the renovations aimed to improve the look of the facility and make the washroom wheelchair accessible.
“It is home for our residents, so if they can be comfortable in a nice, bright, new facility, it’s wonderful.”
Harper said the combination of services has been effective.
“First of all, we were able to have staff work both sides of the facility; doctors are able to work in the ER, they come and see residents in the long-term care. We have only one food service.”
She said the facility has also made it easier to recruit doctors to the area.
Hugh Nerlien, the MLA for Kelvington-Wadena, was also present at the celebration.
“For my constituency, it’s a tremendous accomplishment for a number of reasons. First and foremost, because it’s an integrated facility that really serves the whole area, not just the community of Kelvington,” he said. “More importantly, it’s a celebration of the community’s will to get together, working with municipalities, working with government, working with the health authority to create a tremendous facility that will serve us well into the future.”
The province contributed $12 million to the facility. The community, including local municipalities, foundations and health care auxiliaries, raised $3 million.
“I’m so proud of them, proud of the community,” Nerlien said. “They made it happen.”
