$11M renovation for Ashern hospital will expand ER, add more in-patient beds

A hospital in Manitoba's Interlake will see its emergency department expanded withadditional treatment space and will get up to 12 additional in-patient beds in a significant renovation, the provincial government announced Friday.

The Lakeshore General Hospital in Ashern will undergo theexpansion with the help of nearly $11 million in funding, the province said.

The new in-patient beds will allow patients from theInterlake area to recover closer to home instead of in Winnipeg, Health Minister Audrey Gordon said at a news conference Friday.

The hospital is the main emergency department on Highway 6 in northwestern Manitoba, and serves several remote communities, some up to 100 kilometres away, saidDr. Mina Gendi, a physician in Ashern.

"Adding beds here and enhancing the emergency department will improve accessibility to the health-care system and increase our ability to provide patients with quality care," Gendi said.

The province has allocated $10.8 million for the renovations, with construction expected to begin in late 2022 or early 2023.

The renovations should take about three years to complete, said Marion Ellis, interim CEO of the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority.

The announcement comes the same week the union that represents paramedics in rural Manitoba raised alarm bells over staffing shortages in rural areas that is causing longer wait times for ambulances.

Staffing issues

New data from the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents about 800 rural paramedics, shows ambulances went unstaffed nearly 20,000 hours in rural Manitoba in December of 2021.

Officials at Friday's news conference said the province is working on addressing staffing shortages through itsclinical preventative services plan, which will serve as a roadmap to improving health-careaccess and quality, along with patient outcomes.

The province is also looking into a pilot project for the Interlake region that would see alternative transportation services provided for patients who need to be taken for diagnostic tests or other treatments.

That would free up ambulances for emergencies, said Ian Shaw, who leads theprovince'shealth system transformation team.

The province faced criticism for making the Lakeshore General Hospital announcement at a time when Manitoba's health-care system continues to be severely strained.

Thomas Linner, provincial director for the Manitoba Health Coalition,a non-profit health-care advocacy group, said he'd like to hear more from the province on how it plans to address staffing shortages in the health-care system.

"Capital announcements are fine, but what Manitobans in those communities really need to know is, where are the nurses coming from? Where are the doctors coming from? Where are the technologists coming from?" he said.

"Whereare the folks who are going to keep these [emergency] rooms open coming from? If you don't have a plan for that, then you do not have a plan for health care in rural Manitoba."

In a statement, NDP Leader Wab Kinew also criticized the province for announcing the Ashern hospital renovations without a plan to hire nurses to staff the additional beds.