Brandon hospital undergoes $120-M renovation

BRANDON — The critical care centre at Brandon’s hospital will begin accepting patients in May when intensive care and inpatient medicine services are expanded, the Manitoba government announced Wednesday.

The number of beds in the new ICU will increase to 16 from 10, with 12 beds opening to start, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said during a news conference at the Brandon Regional Health Centre.

The 30-bed internal medicine unit on the second floor will open 15 beds in the spring, with the remaining beds coming online as more staff are hired, they said.

“We know that the most responsible way to add capacity is to make sure that you’re doing it in a way where those beds are fully staffed … so that we’re not adding capacity and enforcing a scenario where you’re using overtime or mandating to staff those beds,” Asagwara said.

Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said she hopes the four remaining ICU beds will open this year, but that will depend on training and the number of nurses interested in working there.

Slate said she didn’t have a timeline on when the remaining 15 beds in the internal medicine unit will open.

The province spent approximately $120 million on the building; construction started in the fall of 2022.

The hospital has the only ICU between Winnipeg and Regina and its one of four ICUs in Manitoba, Slate said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical role this site plays in caring for patients across the region and beyond, and reinforced the need for expanded modern infrastructure,” she said.

“This new facility will transform how care is delivered.”

Slate added the current ICU is “very crowded” and only has three private rooms.

Dr. Adrian Fung, chief medical officer of Prairie Mountain Health, said the critical care centre is a “large step forward” and will make a huge difference for patients, their families and staff.

Patients will receive care in spacious, single rooms that feature a ceiling track lift, said Sheilagh Remillard, the ICU manager.

The new ICU also has a quiet room for families, she said.

The third floor is a mechanical space, and the fourth level is a shell space for a neonatal intensive care unit, enabling the future development of specialized neonatal services, Remillard said.

The centre also has an outdoor courtyard for families and patients to help reduce stress and promote healing.

Slate said the regional health authority is addressing its vacancy rates and working to recruit more nurses by offering paid opportunities for health-care staff to observe activities in the ICU.

“We have some areas of our region which are harder for recruitment and retention, especially in the north part of our region where we really struggle, and we have very high vacancy rates,” she said.

The province ordered Prairie Mountain Health last year to cut spending on private agency nurses by 15 per cent before March 2026. Slate said the target has been achieved.

Prairie Mountain Health spent $8.1 million on private nursing agencies in 2020-21, and that amount jumped to $35 million in 2024-25.

Asagwara said PMH is the hardest region in Manitoba to staff and that more nurses are needed.

“They’ve risen to the occasion in terms of prioritizing staffing the front lines, bringing those agency dollars down and then making sure that money — every single dollar — should be going to the bedside,” Asagwara said.

Asagwara said the hospital expansion will allow more people in western Manitoba to receive life-saving care closer to home and reduce the number of patient transfers to other hospitals.

Brandon Firefighter Paramedics Local 803 president Gage Wood said a larger ICU is a “great addition” to the city because it will decrease the number of ambulance trips to Winnipeg.

Brandon Fire and Emergency Services operate three ambulances that respond to calls in the city and surrounding areas, with two additional ambulances dedicated to inter-facility transfers, Wood said.

More than two inter-facility transfers to Winnipeg per day tie up ambulances for at least six hours, requiring rural ambulances in Westman to provide coverage for Brandon, he said.

— Brandon Sun