The Town of Esterhazy started a petition online seeking support for a new medical multiplex facility. Their message is listed below:
Esterhazy and Area is in critical need of a new hospital and care home multiplex facility. Our current building was built in 1964 and is now in need of many upgrades to keep up with and serve the demand of health care in our growing community. It would be more cost effective to replace both facilities with one multiplex rather than maintaining the existing separate facilities long term, as our facilities now are inefficient, outdated and unsatisfactory. The condition of health care facilities is important in providing safe and efficient patient care, therefore, both the public and staff would greatly benefit from an updated medical multiplex serving as a hospital and care home in one.
Esterhazy facilities currently have 5 doctors serving our hospital, medical clinic and care home full time. Esterhazy also provides a physician 5 days a week to serve our neighbouring community Langenburg. These facilities are operated with full time nurses, lab technicians, administration, and ambulatory staff. Our current medical team serves 11,000 residents in the area and over a 100K radius. St. Anthony’s Hospital only has 14 beds and is only 2,463 square meters in size. It provides primary and acute medical services, 24-hour emergency services, laboratory and x-ray services, outpatient services, and visiting healthcare professional services. Esterhazy’s facilities are the health care hub for the area, not only for acute care services like inpatient care and community physiotherapy services, but also community services like home care, public health, mental health counselling and dietician services. It is crucial that the Provincial Government keeps up with our community’s medical demands and has a fully functioning facility to keep all services available to our rural area.
The Esterhazy Centennial Special Care Home was built for level 1-4 patient care with 52 beds and 1 respite bed. The care home is currently running at full capacity with more residents being a level 4 care. Residents from the care home are transported to the hospital for medical and diagnostic services via handibus or ambulance, which is an inefficient use of ambulance services. Having a new multiplex facility would be more cost effective and overall more efficient than the two separate buildings we currently have. The kitchen and laundry facilities could be shared, along with more readily available laboratory and diagnostic services for care home residents.
Esterhazy and surrounding area is home to K1, K2, and K3 which are flagship mines of The Mosaic Company and 2 mines for Nutrien. These mines serve the richest reserves of potash in the world and employ thousands of citizens in the area, creating a vibrant economy for over 80 categories of industrial and commercial businesses within the region. Esterhazy and surrounding communities are lively places where families locate for employment and to raise their youth. Our rural area has great educational and recreational opportunities for our families. The potash mines will continue to run for a projected 50 plus years and will not be diminishing anytime soon. The need for an up-to-date medical care facility is imperative to sustain the growth and influx of our community.
With due diligence and hard work, over the last 10 years fundraising committees in Esterhazy such as Charity Golf and St. Anthony’s Foundation, as well as surrounding RMs and towns, have worked to raise over 10 million dollars to fund our new hospital. This totals the 20% portion of a projected 50-million-dollar project that the Provincial government stated 10 years ago that was needed for a new hospital and long-term care facility. Esterhazy has land and willing to donate for the new complex in conjunction with the 10 million dollars raised. With inflation rates at an all time high, the longer the Provincial Government waits, the more it will cost our Community and the Provincial Government in the future.
If you agree and appreciate that Esterhazy and Area is in critical need of a new hospital and care home multiplex facility, we implore you to sign this petition.
We also urge you to reach out to the following politicians in aiding the construction of a new multiplex medical care facility: Minister for Seniors and Rural and Remote Health Everett Hindley, Minister of Health Paul Merriman and our local MLA the honorable Warren Kaeding.
Online, the petition can be found at www.change.org