Alberta govt announces $2M for planning more hospital beds in Edmonton, no timeline in sight

The Government of Alberta is working on a plan to increase the number of hospital beds in Edmonton but it’s still not clear when construction will start.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, along with Infrastructure Minister Martin Long, on Thursday announced $2 million in Budget 2025 toward planning for 700 acute care beds, to be split between the Misericordia Hospital and the Grey Nuns Community Hospital.

The beds will be in a new tower located on each of the existing hospitals’ grounds, doubling the capacity of each.

However, neither of the ministers gave an actual timeline on when construction will begin or when will the new beds be available.

The health minister said this new plan is smarter than spending nearly $5 billion on a new hospital in south Edmonton.

“The brand-new hospital would have created 400 beds, here we are looking at creating 700 beds over two facilities. This is much quicker, much faster and less expensive,” she said.

The province is aware that Edmonton has a shortage of hospital beds, and that these hospitals need immediate funding. Earlier, as per the Alberta Health Services (AHS) website, the overnight wait time in the Grey Nuns emergency room was over eight hours. By 9 a.m. the wait had come down to about four hours.

When CityNews repeatedly asked the health minister for a timeline, she refused to even give a rough estimate. She also did not provide the cost to build the towers.

“We are going to build this project as quickly as possible, but we have to plan it first,” LaGrange reiterated.

Patrick Dumelie, CEO of Covenant Health which operates both hospitals, said the funding is an important step forward.

“What we do know is that the cost of building these two new towers will be a fraction of the price of constructing a new hospital. The $2 million will allow us to work with infrastructure, health, and acute care Alberta to come back with a plan and have a timeline.”

Edmontonians we spoke to said wait times are getting ridiculous. Another person said that there is a need for bigger and better hospitals with efficient manpower.

Inside the Grey Nuns Hospital, Malcom Wellings, who is on the waitlist for surgery, stood to chat with the health minister, saying a three-year wait is too long.

“A three-year wait? That’s longer than a third-world country. You know what I’m saying? And I’ve been to third-world countries,” he said.

However, the NDP says the government should have never cancelled the South Edmonton Hospital project, adding planning funds do nothing to help a system in crisis.

“Two million dollars for planning is just an announcement to eventually make an announcement that they might possibly build more beds. It is not real funding,” said NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman.

The government is also planning a new, stand-alone Stollery Children’s Hospital and is working to make use of vacant spaces in existing health facilities – in an effort to keep up with the needs of a fast-growing population.