Central Alberta will get 276 new or upgraded continuing care beds — including 100 beds in Red Deer — over the next two years.
On Wednesday, Alberta Infrastructure announced $55 million from its Alberta Capital Bonds program and $50 million from its Affordable Supportive Living Initiative will go towards creating 1,017 beds in 11 communities.
A brand new Red Deer facility will be operated by non-profit Convenant Health, the largest Catholic health care provider in Canada.
Convenant submitted a plan to the province to build a $25-million facility in Red Deer. Design plans are being developed. Negotiation on a location is still proceeding so it cannot be announced.
In Lacombe, Christenson Communities, of Edmonton, will develop 88 beds, and in Stettler a continuing care partnership will create 88 beds.
Convenant Health will build a designated assisted living facility for people with higher health needs, but do not yet need to go into long-term care.
Viggo Nielsen, vice-chairman of Central Alberta Council on Aging and chair of the council’s health committee, said the lack of long-term care beds is the problem in Red Deer.
“A hundred beds is a hundred beds. It’s great,” Nielsen said.
But they have to be targeted to the people who need them, said Nielsen who is waiting for more information on Convenant’s project.
“The devil is always in the details.”
Alberta Health Services is closing two aging long-term care facilities in Red Deer and will start moving patients from those facilities when Extendicare Canada’s opens its new Michener Hill Village in September.
Michener Hill will increase Red Deer’s long-term care beds by four and add 60 supportive living beds.
Meanwhile as of March, Central Zone of Alberta Health Services had 227 people waiting for a bed, including 49 in Red Deer.
Convenant president and CEO Patrick Dumelie said often times residents in designated assisted living get the same level of care as they would in long-term care, if required.
“Individuals can have quite significant care needs. The criteria is just that their care needs don’t change rapidly,” Dumelie said.
“They are managed quite effectively in the environment and they don’t tend to deteriorate.”
In Central Alberta, Convenant runs Our Lady of the Rosary Hospital in Castor and St. Mary’s Health Centre in Trochu.
The province says the 13 projects announced Wednesday support Alberta’s Continuing Care Strategy: Aging in the Right Place and will provide supportive living, designated assisted living and long-term care spaces.
The province will release more project details in the future.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com