Inpatient beds, more operating rooms planned for Strathcona Community Hospital

Alberta is investing $2 million to begin planning on the expansion that would bring inpatient care and more surgical capacity to the Strathcona Community Hospital, easing the pressure on Edmonton’s hospitals in the process.

The plan is to add up to 120 inpatient beds along with shelled space for 32 future beds, as well as more operating rooms. The province estimates the hospital will be able to take on 4,100 surgeries annually.

The plan is also to have expanded diagnostic imaging, laboratory and pharmacy services, specialized ambulatory clinics, endoscopy services and a hemodialysis unit.

The hospital currently provides primary care, emergency services, diagnostic imaging and outpatient services, including some day surgeries.

“The expansion to the Strathcona Community Hospital will help more Albertans get the vital acute care services they need closer to home and help reduce system pressures in the greater Edmonton region,” said Matt Jones, minister of hospital and surgical health services.

The province says the planning work is being guided by long-term population growth projections, as well as an aging population with more complex needs.

“This investment gives all of us confidence that the Strathcona Community Hospital can grow alongside the community it serves,” said Kathryn Luedtke, vice-chair of the Strathcona Community Hospital Foundation.

The government of Alberta says the business plan for the Sherwood Park hospital expansion will be concluded this fall, positioning the project for the Budget 2027 deliberation cycle.

The Strathcona Community Hospital opened in 2014.

Alberta NDP’s Motion 512

The government’s announcement came just hours after the Alberta NDP urged the UCP government to support Motion 512, which is asking officials to “acknowledge the severity of Alberta’s emergency care crisis.”

“It recognizes that underfunded, overcapacity hospitals are causing dangerous delays in care, that some Albertans have died before receiving treatment as a result, and that long waits are discouraging people from seeking care,” the NDP wrote in a news release.

The Opposition also pointed to recent incidents like the Dec. 22, 2025, death of 44-year-old Prashant Sreekumar inside the emergency department of Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Community Hospital, and a recent stabbing at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital emergency department.

CityNews asked Minister Jones about the NDP’s motion at the Strathcona Community Hospital press conference on Monday. He said the government was reviewing it.

“Absolutely agree that hospitals in Alberta are under pressure, which is why we are moving forward with an ambitious build of capacity, particularly in the capital region, which is the highest pressure area,” Jones said. “That’s why we’ve announced projects like the inpatient bed towers for the Misericordia and Grey Nuns hospitals. We are also moving forward with the planning and land acquisition for eight urgent care centres across the province again to increase access. Two of those will be in the Edmonton area, and to relieve pressures on our EDs.

“So as it relates to the motion, still reviewing it, agree with the much of it, about the pressures in our hospital and how that does impact patient care and does impact wait times. There’s more to do. And of course, we’ll continue to recruit health-care workers which I think was in there as well.”

The motion will be voted on in the Alberta legislature on Monday.