Steinbach hospital serves Ste Anne: Southern Health

While the reeves and mayors of Ste Anne, La Broquerie and Tache try to get a meeting with Premier Wab Kinew to give Ste Anne Hospital a “regional designation,” Southern Health says there are no actual parameters that come with that designation.

The leaders from the three rural municipalities and town of Ste Anne are trying to reach the premier’s office through the Association of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (AMBM), and not Southern Health.

A spokesperson for Southern Health responded to The Carillon that the hospital in Steinbach is serving the people of Ste Anne, but did not say if there was a difference in salaries or services that comes with a “regional” designation as Ste Anne Mayor Yvan St. Vincent said hospital staff were telling him.

Here was the full response from Southern Health:

“At this time there is no official guideline that defines the parameters for “regional” designation. The three existing regional centres in Southern Health-Santé Sud are considered health care hubs with a minimum of 70 inpatient beds, full scope of diagnostics, surgery, CancerCare, pharmacy, dialysis and rehabilitation services.

“Hôpital Ste-Anne Hospital is a 21-bed bilingual health centre. The centre is located 20 minutes from Bethesda Regional Health Centre which is undergoing significant capital expansion to increase services and capacity to better support the growing community of Steinbach and surrounding area, including the community of Ste Anne.”

Bethesda Regional Health Centre’s expansion will have three new operating theatres, already opened a dialysis unit, and will have seven beds specializing in palliative care.

-With files from Alex Lambert