Alberta parties commit to investments for Lethbridge cardiac care expansions

LETHBRIDGE — Following a 2023 budget that had reportedly no funding going toward cardiac care in Lethbridge, the Alberta UCP now says that was not the case.

An investment of $2 million is coming down the pipe for a cardiac catheterization lab and five other priority areas.

"A catheterization lab will be built in the Chinook Health Centre, so this is fantastic news for the residents of southern Alberta," Mayor Blaine Hyggen said.

The other priority areas include clinical cardiology, cardiac imaging, cardiac device services, cardiac ambulatory diagnostics and procedures and prevention.

Nathan Neudorf, Alberta's deputy premier and MLA for Lethbridge-East, says the money was always part of the budget.

"Alberta Health Services South Zone had the catheterization lab on their capital plan but when they put it forward to AHS leadership in Edmonton, it was removed at that stage as there was some additional functional planning required," Neudorf told media on Wednesday.

"That's where it landed when we were at budget process, so it was inappropriate to put it in as a line item."

According to an AHS representative, the funding is new and coming from the AHS budget as part of capital planning dollars.

Neudorf says the $2 million is just for the design process and that the entire project is expected to cost around $25 million.

"Lots of planning has been done and now we're committing to the project and putting design dollars forward, which will carry us into the next stage into the next budget cycle," Neudorf said.

Earlier Wednesday, the Alberta NDP candidates for Lethbridge, Shannon Phillips and Rob Miyashiro, made a similar commitment, pledging $20 million to bring cardiac expansions to CRH.

"We will expand the cardiac wing with a $20-million investment, offering new interventional cardiac services and more diagnostic services, more cardiologists, more cardiac catheterization, allowing doctors to see and eliminate deadly blockages," said Miyashiro, the NDP candidate for Lethbridge-East.

Phillips says the money pledged by the NDP helps secure the future of Lethbridge's health sector and that the UCP are trying to save face with their commitment.

"This is invisible money promised by the UCP," said Phillips, NDP MLA for Lethbridge-West.

"It was not in the budget that was just voted on two months ago when Nathan Neudorf told the legislature that cardiac care expansion at Chinook Regional Hospital was not necessary and no studies had been done even though he was in receipt of those studies."

Once fully operational, the new catheterization lab will treat between 1,500 and 1,700 patients per year.

Currently, hundreds of southern Albertans travel to Calgary for cardiac treatment annually.

Neudorf says the design phase will take somewhere between six and eight months, potentially longer given the election and the pending outcome.

A set timeline for the completed project is not yet available.