There will soon be a new hospital in Manitoba; one serving residents living north and east of Brandon.
The hospital will be built in Neepawa and will be four times the size of the existing hospital in the community.
“When complete (it) will serve as a foundation for a health-care system that allows residents in this region to more easily access specialized health-care services closer to home without the need to travel to larger centres like Brandon or Winnipeg for care,” said Manitoba’s Health Minister Audrey Gordon, who announced the project at an event in Neepawa Oct. 17.
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Construction is expected to begin in November and the estimated cost of the project is $127 million. If all goes well, the hospital should be constructed by 2025.
The new hospital will nearly double the amount of inpatient beds in Neepawa and provide room for a number of services, including surgery, diagnostics, chemotherapy and palliative care.
It will also offer dialysis for patients who now travel to Brandon or Winnipeg for treatment.
“Kidney dialysis patients who live in or near Neepawa are used to making multiple trips per week to other communities to receive care,” said Dr. Mauro Verrelli, provincial medical specialty lead for renal health, Shared Health. “Establishing this service in Neepawa will improve their quality of life by significantly shortening commutes.”
The government may have selected Neepawa for the new hospital because of its growing population and the town’s success in attracting immigrants. From 2016 to 2021, Neepawa’s population went from 4,609 to 5,685 — a 23 percent increase.
The Hylife hog processing plant in Neepawa is responsible for much of that growth. The company has recruited hundreds of people from the Philippines to work at the plant, which expanded dramatically during the 2010s.
Hylife employs more than 1,500 people in Neepawa and the company now processes 3.2 million hogs per year.
Hylife also operates hog barns throughout Manitoba and its website says that Hylife is No. 1 in hog production in Canada, with 3.4 million hogs per year.
The new hospital will be located east of Neepawa, along the Yellowhead Highway.
