Extended care beds to go in Stanton
Location of 18-bed facility for city had previously been unclear
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Premier Bob McLeod indicated Tuesday that part of the existing Stanton Territorial Hospital will become an extended care facility once it is no longer a hospital.
"We also continue to take steps to ensure that our elders have the support they need, where they need it," McLeod said yesterday at the start of the new session of the legislative assembly. "That includes construction on a new 18-bed long-term care facility in Behchoko and a plan to put extended care beds into a purpose-designed unit in the redeveloped Stanton building."
Extended care is for people who can no longer live independently.
The territory is building a new hospital - retaining the Stanton Territorial Hospital name - across the street from the existing facility, which is expected to start taking patients in 2019.
While the current 13,300-square-metre hospital has 13 extended care beds, the territory didn't plan to include those beds in the new hospital.
Instead, a separate 18-bed extended care facility was included in the territory's capital budget for completion in 2018-19.
As recently as October, the Department of Health and Social Services stated the new extended-care facility's location had not been finalized.
The premier's speech suggests that question has now been settled, though no one from the department was available late Tuesday to elaborate.
What should happen to the current building after it is no longer a hospital became a point of debate during the 2015 territorial election. Former cabinet minister David Ramsay suggested it become an addictions and mental-health centre.
In September 2015, the GNWT signed a contract with Ventura Stanton Inc., a company registered in Edmonton with W. Guy Scott listed as its lone director. The contract states the GNWT will retain ownership of the building while Ventura will act as landlord for 30 years. It requires Ventura and Boreal Health Partnership, the consortium of companies building the new hospital, to provide approximately $13 million for remediation of the existing building, including removing any hazardous materials, and renovations to make it ready for commercial occupancy.
Those renovations include a new roof, interior renovations, conversion of the heating plant from industrial to commercial, new ceilings with lights, sprinklers and the "softening" of the exterior appearance.
