Merci, Monsieur le President. Earlier today I spoke about the transition of health and medical services within the old and new Stanton hospitals and possibly offsite during renovations.
Can the Minister share any insights into the planning and coordination that is happening for the day when patients will be transferred from the old Stanton to the new Stanton? I believe that day is May 26, 2019. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. May 26th is fast approaching. It is going to be an incredibly important day for the healthcare system, and it is also going to be a very complex and busy day. In order to ensure that we have little-to-no patient interruption or reduction in services during that time, we have been doing a significant amount of planning.
Health Care Relocations Inc. has been contracted to guide the Stanton team and the Stanton staff through transition planning. Operational readiness activities have been under way since November 2016, with the creation of 17 different transition planning teams.
The final move plan will be developed in such incredible detail and minute detail that the movement of patients will be scheduled down to the minute, with minimal impact on patients. The patient move will occur in one day, on May 26th. All necessary infrastructure, equipment, furniture, and systems in the new hospital will be in place and tested long before that date to ensure that we have a smooth transition.
Like I said, we want to reduce or have very little to no impact or reduction in services due to the transition. There will be some mock moves tested, some practice moves before the day actually comes. On that day, everybody, every service, will be coming out of the old Stanton building into the new Stanton building and a couple of other different locations around town for those services that will not be permanently located in the new Stanton building. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister for that. I am very excited. I will probably be a spectator, watching it all, but I appreciate that a lot of work is going into this. It is a very important event.
When I searched the Stanton renewal website, I could find some information about the final location for various services. There are some nice floor plans and so on, but there doesn't seem to be any information there about the transition period during renovations, when some of these services may be moved offsite. Does the Minister have this kind of information, and can he share it?
There will be some temporary program moves as renovations are completed in the legacy Stanton building, the old building. For instance, outpatient rehab will be temporarily located on level 2 of the centre square tower, while speech and audiology will remain at the Stanton Medical Centre, which is the building beside McDonald's. The extended care unit will temporarily move to level 5 of the new Stanton building. There will be some temporary moves.
Mr. Speaker, we want this information to be clear. We want this information to be transparent. We are intending to keep our website updated on a regular basis. The Member and I had a quick conversation about the website this morning, at which point I went and quickly checked the website to see if I could find the information. I was able to find pretty much everything that I was looking for. I may not have been looking for the same information that the Member was looking for.
I know that the Member wants us to do some updates on the website. I am going to encourage the Member to come down to my office, and we can sit in front of my computer together and try to find the pieces of information that he is looking for and make some suggestions to me on how we might improve our website, because, bottom line, we want to be clear; we want to be transparent; we want the information available to the public.
I would be delighted to join the Minister in his office and work away on his computer with him. I am sure that there is going to be a big public information campaign rolling out about these transitions within the old and new hospitals and so on.
Part of that campaign should include information about how services will transition from the old Stanton hospital to offsite, and the Minister has given some of that, during the renovations. Then, of course, they are going to return to the Stanton legacy building that the Minister referred to. Can the Minister tell us when all of this information is going to be put together and when it is going to be made available to the public?
Some of that information has already been made public. We have been clear on what types of services and what services will be going into the Stanton legacy building. The extended care will be there. Long-term care will be there, and there will be a number of other services, including some of the rehab services, the primary care clinics, and other things. Those are going to be in the old Stanton.
Like I said, I am happy to sit down with the Member. I was able to find that information when I looked. I would be happy to sit down with the Member and figure out what is missing from the average user's point-of-view, to make sure that we get the information out there. I, like the Member and like everybody in this House, want that information out there. We want our public to know where the services that they need are located so that there is no confusion during the two-to-three years that it will take to retrofit the legacy Stanton building and get everybody moved back in.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President, and thanks to the Minister for that. I guess what I am really looking for here is a Gantt chart, a list of the services that are located in the old hospital now, when they may be moved offsite, when they are going to come back, and where they are in the interim. I think a Gantt chart would help.
I am prepared to sit down and work with him on this, but can the Minister commit to putting this information about the transition of these services together using a Gantt chart on the Stanton renewal website? I would be happy to work with them and get that done as quickly as we can, but can he commit to doing that? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I commit to getting the information that the Member is looking for out into the public through our website. I recognize that I am not an expert in communications. I don't believe the Member is an expert in communications, although he may be good.
My recommendation is that we rely on the experts who are involved in getting information to the public on a regular basis and take their input to make sure that the right tool is being used. If it's a Gantt chart, let's do a Gantt chart. If it's not a Gantt chart, let's not do a Gantt chart. Bottom line: let's get the information out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
