New Emergency Medical Services Facility To Be Built In Neepawa

August 26, 2009

A new, $888,000, two-bay emergency medical services (EMS) facility will be built in Neepawa, Health Minister Theresa Oswald announced today.

“Construction of a new EMS facility will see improved services for both patients and paramedics and builds on our commitment to strengthening and renewing health-care infrastructure in Manitoba’s rural communities,” said Oswald. “Having access to modernized facilities will ensure our front-line responders are better equipped to deliver their life-saving care.”The new facility will be built by Minish Construction Ltd. next to the recently opened Country Meadows Personal Care Home.

“The new EMS facility in Neepawa will provide much needed protection for the ambulances and a better location to support staff training,” said Penny Gilson, chief executive officer of the Assiniboine Regional Health Authority. “We commend the province for moving forward with this important investment in our region and our EMS service.”

The new facility will use geothermal energy as the heat source and will be a Power Smart building.

Recent provincial investments in emergency medical services include:

• providing $10 million to:

– purchase 39 new and replacement ambulances for communities across the province,
– permanently hire additional paramedics provincewide, and
– partner with Red River College to deliver a primary-care paramedic program at the college’s main campus and at three rural and northern sites;

• $6.5 million to replace an air-ambulance jet in the Lifeflight program, which provides life-saving transport each year to more than 500 people living in remote communities;

• $4.6 million to construct or substantially upgrade emergency medical stations in Morden/Winkler, Oak Bluff, Carmen, The Pas, Killarney, Swan River, Minnedosa, Rivers, Ste. Anne, Gypsumville, The Pas, Steinbach, Lundar, Kinisota Trails, Ashern, Dauphin and Altona.

• $7.8 million to develop the Medical Transportation Co-ordination Centre in Brandon, the dedicated centre for the dispatch of all rural and northern medical services including inter-facility transfers; and

• an estimated $7 million each year to fund the full patient cost of inter-facility transports.

Construction on the Neepawa facility is expected to begin in the fall of 2009 and be completed by summer 2010.

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