It’s an exciting time at Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC).
On December 9th, the BTHC Foundation presented Southern Health-Santé Sud, the region’s service delivery organization that oversees healthcare, with a cheque for $5 million.
The cumulative contribution marks the halfway point of the foundation’s commitment to the health centre’s expansion, which has made significant progress just over three years after its groundbreaking.
‘Everything is coming together’
At this point in the project, the 24-inpatient facility is nearing completion.
Brent Menzies, the board chair of the BTHC Foundation, said it’s “exciting” to see the progress.
“Everything is coming together, and it’s a wonderful facility,” he said. “It’s going to be great for patients and for families that come … here.”
Members of the BTHC Foundation and Southern Health-Santé Sud in BTHC’s 24-bed addition.
Menzies added that the donation was made possible with the community’s support.
For that, he’s thankful.
“To see healthcare expanding like this in our region is just excellent to see.”
24 more beds
Menzies added that, so far, the expansion project is on track with its timelines.
In recent days, staff have begun moving into the 24-inpatient unit and familiarizing themselves with the facility.
“We’re going through staff training, … and we’ll be starting to care for patients in this building in the new year, a February-March timeframe,” said Kyle MacNair, the implementation lead for Southern Health-Santé Sud who oversees capital projects in the region.
One of the rooms at BTHC’s expansion nearing completion.
The next phase is around the corner
According to MacNair, the next phase of the initiative is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2026.
“After they finish the community services building next door, they’re going to be moving a bunch of the programs into the community services building, and then we start renovations on … the existing hospital,” he explained.
“[It’s] fairly extensive, about one third of the hospital will get renovated for more emergency room services, a new [operating room] theatre, a larger expanded cancer care unit, and an expanded ambulatory care unit.”
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MacNair said that Southern Health-Santé Sud is always working on recruitment, retention, and staffing for the new facilities.
“We’re not going to expand to all twenty-four beds on day one — we’re going to do a phase expansion as staffing is brought on,” he said. “It’s progressing every day.”
‘People are excited in the community’
Joel Nelson, the director of health services at BTHC, said that as the expansion project grows, the community’s anticipation builds.
“[I often] get comments from staff or people coming into the facility [about] how big the expansion is and how excited [they are] that they’ve seen the progress as they drive by it on the highway,” he said.
“People are excited in the community.”
A glimpse into BTHC’s 24-inpatient expansion.
Nelson echoed Menzies’ sentiment about the region’s impact on the project.
“It’s incredible to see how the community has come together so quickly to raise the money and contribute to certain aspects of the expansion,” he said.
“It allows us to expand services within the community. It gives new workspaces for staff to engage in care with patients and also provide the high-quality care that we take a lot of pride in at our facility.”
The director added that BTHC recognizes the community’s healthcare needs and is striving to meet them.
With files from Robyn Wiebe