Story:It's not often in this opinion column business one can lay claim to accurately predicting the future. Most of the time it's a crapshoot. But in April 2011, I nailed it, when I wrote Saskatchewan will need to rebuild the Plains Health Centre on Regina's Ring Road, directly across the street from the previous Plains.
On June 4, Premier Brad Wall announced approval in principle for the Plains Surgery and Outpatient Care Centre, "an ambulatory care facility that will be designed and built in partnership with the Hospitals of Regina Foundation, the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region and the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency. The centre will put patients first in its design, care delivery and location," according to the government press release.
"This facility will enable a level of co-operation and co-ordination in outpatient health care services that has never been seen before in Saskatchewan," Wall said. "Patients will appreciate having related health services in one location. For example, a cancer patient may be able to receive a CT scan next door to where they receive chemotherapy treatment. Patients will be able to spend less time and energy waiting for appointments or navigating a hospital and more time looking after their health."
It was in early June 2011, when I had a chance to have a private one-on-one with Premier Wall. I first met him many years ago early in his days as Leader of the Opposition, and it seems once a year or so we get a few minutes to chat and exchange ideas. So that June, I suggested to him that with the growing population numbers, and the fact Saskatchewan's health infrastructure was built for only one million people, n number we have now left far behind, we're going to need to build more hospital beds. The most logical place for that was in Regina, directly across the street from the old Plains.
I can't really describe his response, but looking back now, I think he might have been playing a bit coy with me. That's because there's no way a project like this had less than a year's worth of consideration. But it's a nice feeling to be right, all the same.
There's no question about the political purposes behind the name of this new health facility - the Plains. This is a poke in the eye from the Sask. Party to the NDP for their closure of the Plains. While most towns took the closure of their local hospitals hard, all of southern Saskatchewan was riled about the Plains. It was the newest, most easily accessible hospital in Regina, and yet it was the one to close.
It was also the one that largely served people from outside Regina, in the rural, not-so-NDP-friendly ridings.
These people would later have to fight for parking spaces at the crammed General or Pasqua hospitals. Ambulance trips from out of town would have to weave their way through the city to reach the older hospitals. Minutes are heart muscle, they say, and no one from out of town could understand why their precious minutes didn't matter as much.
That slight was never forgotten.
Right now, this is planned as an outpatient facility. But prudent planning would also allow for future expansion into a full-fledged, overnight stay hospital. As Saskatchewan's population grows to 1.1 and then 1.2 million, we will need it. At that point a helipad can be added, where it should be, on the ground just outside the emergency room, instead of on the roof of the General.
Some people have noted the last provincial election had few promises made by the Saskatchewan party, with few dollars attached. Most have already been fulfilled. This is one of the first major initiatives we have seen since the election. I wonder what's coming next?
My money is on a domed stadium.
- Brian Zinchuk is Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association Columnist of the Year 2012. He can be reached at [email protected].
