Calgary's new south hospital opens doors
Out-patient clinic open, but emergency rooms won't be ready until next year
After years of planning, the first patients finally walked through the doors of Calgary’s new acute care hospital Thursday.
Only out-patient clinics are operating right now at the South Health Campus, as the emergency room and other facilities aren't slated to open until next year.
The facility features extra wide hallways and the latest medical technology.
Currently, the province is still looking to fill many of the 2,600 staff positions.
"All the indications I have from [Alberta Health Services] is that they're on track," said Health Minister Fred Horne. "There's 1,000 people working here today, so I'm not concerned about the staffing at this point."
Heather Smith with the United Nurses of Alberta says newly-hired nurses are already working at other Calgary hospitals in anticipation of moving to the South Health Campus as it ramps up.
"I don't think it's going to be perhaps as smooth as we would want it to be," Smith said. "Once we start opening and staff start coming from the other sites to this site, not so much that it's going to be a problem here, but it may be a problem at the sites now being depleted."
The 300 beds and 11 operating rooms will likely be fully functional sometime next year.