No long-term care at new Hay River hospital concerns residents

Residents of Hay River are concerned that there are no plans for long-term care beds in the towns new health centre, though there are 10 currently in H.H. Williams Memorial hospital.

A new long-term care facility is being built in Fort Smith and the territory is looking at adding facilities to other communities as well. The government believes this will alleviate some of the demand on the Hay River facility.

"We're not going to shut down the long-term care at the current hospital until we have somewhere to put the patients," said Tom Beaulieu, minister of Health and Social Services.

The new health centre will cost $50 million, and is slated to be finished around the summer of 2015.

It will have 14 acute care beds, a covered garage bay for ambulances and a labour room.