Planning work for a cardiac catheterization laboratory in Lethbridge at Chinook Regional Hospital has been underway since 2022 and is now complete
Earlier this year, Alberta Health Services submitted a needs assessment for cardiac services in southern Alberta. Typically, the next step in the process would be to develop a business case to assess options to address the identified needs and gaps. However, the needs assessment for this project identified solutions within existing facilities and it was determined the project could advance to functional programming. This will expedite the project timelines by up to one year.
Alberta Health is moving the project forward to the next stage, which will define the project’s scope, schedule, budget and associated impacts.
The completed functional program will be used to inform capital funding discussions and decisions for future budget preparations.
According to the Government of Alberta, compared with the provincial average, residents of southern Alberta are 30 per cent more likely to die from cardiac-related disease.