SIOUX LOOKOUT — Officials with the Meno Ya Win Health Centre say they intend to submit preliminary design documents for a new long-term care facility to the province on or before September 1.
The hospital in Sioux Lookout received a $2.5 million planning grant from the province in late 2024; that money went “to complete the required planning, design and tender-ready submissions for the project,” Michelle Beaulne, Meno Ya Win’s director of corporate services said in an email to Newswatch, adding that will include working drawings.
“We intend to undertake all of the detailed planning aspects necessary to enable the completion of the preliminary plan for the project to subsequently be reviewed to make the decision to proceed to the construction stage,” she said.
That grant does not cover any future construction costs, Beaulne said, adding that kind of funding is contingent on the preliminary plan that’s currently under development being approved by the Ministry of Long-Term Care.
Getting a larger long-term care facility built and up and running in the Northwestern Ontario municipality has been top of mind for local officials and health care advocates for years, as the existing 21-bed William A. George Extended Care Facility is no longer sufficient. A new 96-bed facility connected to the Meno Ya Win Health Centre is the focus of ongoing design work.
The region’s MPP, New Democrat Sol Mamakwa, has called the lack of long-term care beds in Sioux Lookout a “crisis.”
“Having a large number of alternate-level-of-care patients in our hospital while awaiting the availability of appropriate long-term care beds has impacted the ability to get acute care patients out of the emergency department and admitted into a hospital bed,” Beaulne said.
“The lack of beds has also impacted the ability to repatriate our patients back from other facilities in a timely manner, such as the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.”
Sioux Lookout acts as a northern service hub for dozens of remote First Nations.
Hospital officials said the proposed new expansion will allow patients “immediate and easy access” to a number of services, including traditional healing and food programs and interpreters. Other health care services will also include those around diagnostic imaging, dialysis and diabetes, rehabilitation, pharmacy and laboratory access, and chemotherapy, Beaulne said.
She added that getting all the necessary documents submitted and moving from the planning stage to the construction phase “is a major step forward for residents in our catchment area to access culturally-focused long-term care services.”
“A new 96-bed facility means patients awaiting long-term care will get the right care, at the right place, providing an improved experience as we work to close health equity gaps,” Dean Osmond, the hospital’s president and CEO said in an emailed statement.
