Manitoba government invests in upgrades at Victoria Hospital
Posted April 24, 2024 6:15 pm.
Last Updated April 24, 2024 6:48 pm.
Plans to build a new emergency room and reopen the mature women’s centre were announced at Victoria Hospital, but that isn’t the only change being made to healthcare in Winnipeg, as also announced was plans to build the Anne Oake Family Recovery Centre.
As part of Budget 2024, the province is investing $635 million in capital projects for the health sector, including an investment for work needed to enhance the services at Victoria Hospital after the emergency room was closed in 2017 as part of a health-care restructuring.
Chyanne Webb who was a nurse at Victoria Hospital for 33 years says the ER should have never closed.
“This is so important all of this money needs to go to help the hospitals there in disarray when I had my heart surgery, I was at Saint Boniface Hospital for 10 and a half hours waiting to get in when I was ill,” said Webb.
Work will move forward in the coming year to make other upgrades at Victoria Hospital including the reopening of the Mature Women’s Centre for women and gender-diverse people, but as for the ER, they are hoping to get shovels in the ground in two years once staffing has been secured.
“What happens next is we drop the plans for the new emergency room, and we show respect for the people working here by making sure we don’t turn your workplace your worksite into a construction site,” explained Premier Wab Kinew.
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Victoria Hospital’s upgrades weren’t the only announcements, as Canadian sports commentator and addictions advocate Scott Oake unveiled the plans for the new Anne Oake Family Recovery Centre named after Scott’s late wife Anne, who died in 2021.
The centre, which is an addictions treatment facility for women, will allow children to stay with women in treatment, helping to keep families together
“We believe with the plans for Victoria Centre, the new Emergency Room, the Women’s Mature Health centre, and emphasis on mental health, there is no better place in the entire city for the Ann Oak Family Recovery Center than on the beautiful campus of Victoria hospital,” said Oake.
