The site selection process for Weyburn’s new acute care hospital is proceeding, and it will come down to a cabinet decision for the final selection, said MLA Dustin Duncan, including what size and services the hospital will have.
He spoke of the process involving the planning for the new hospital while taking part in a Zoom meeting with the Weyburn Rotary Club recently.
“I would say things are progressing very well. You may have seen in May there was some surveying crews at different sites around the city, and the work that was done was on geotechnical, studying the ground in five locations. Most notably, I think you would’ve noticed there were crews on site of the existing hospital, that was one of the five sites, so there’s five sites being examined,” said Duncan.
The information of the five possible sites was submitted to the Saskatchewan Health Authority at the beginning of June, and the final site selection will be a cabinet decision, said the MLA.
This year’s budget did not have any new money for a new hospital, but maintained the $2.5 million which had been set aside for site selection, land purchase and finalizing of the plans and design of the facility.
“We will be likely in the next month or so, cabinet will be making a final recommendation on the site, and on the number of beds and on the final concept. There are three different concepts being discussed,” said MLA Duncan.
He said the three scenarios are a replacement hospital, a replacement hospital-plus, and a replacement hospital-plus-plus.
“I can’t get into a lot of the details as to what the plus-pluses are, but there are three concepts, and you will hear more in the coming weeks on what the time lines are, and also what we are actually building in Weyburn,” said Duncan.
The existing hospital was built in 1952, and there have been recommendations for a number of years now to replace the facility as it has been deteriorating in a number of areas of the building, and is inadequate, such as in the emergency room and in the design of patient rooms.
