Six months on from receiving regulatory approval from the City of Cold Lake to move forward with the construction of a new radiology clinic and investors behind the $4 million project are hoping to see the facility “up and running” shortly after the new year.
Dr. Chander Gupta has been practicing in the Cold Lake area for the past six years and during that time he has noticed a distinct problem area residents are all too familiar with – the Lakeland is severely lacking when it comes to health care.
After initially revealing plans for his Cold Lake Radiology Clinic to city council back in March, Gupta invited a small collection of local dignitaries, doctors and members of the media for a tour of the site which he estimates is roughly five months away from completion.
“It's fantastic to be here today – a very, very nice feeling,” Gupta told the Nouvelle following the tour. “There is (a feeling of happiness), but also a feeling of achievement. Everybody has come on board with this project and everything is moving forward in the right direction.”
He added, “I'm really hoping we'll be able to complete the building and have everything ready (so that we can open) in April.”
The new state of the art clinic will provide ultrasound, x-ray, pain management and bone densitometry services to area residents. Gupta said the centre would also have the ability to carry out mammograms.
The facility will be located in Cold Lake north at 2012 – 8 Avenue, which has easy access from Highway 28 and 55. The building itself will be approximately 7,500 sq. ft., with 4,000 sq. ft. of it to be used for the radiology clinic and 3,500 sq. ft. to be used for “other ventures.”
Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland praised Gupta for investing his own money into a facility he believes will drastically improve health care in the region.
“This is huge for the City of Cold Lake and huge for the greater (Lakeland) region,” Copeland said. “We know all about the (issues) with the Cold Lake hospital. We have a big backlog in ultrasound, we have a big backlog when it comes to CT scanning so in terms of radiology this facility is going to vastly improve the level of service in our area.”
MLA for Bonnyville – Cold Lake Genia Leskiw said she was “very impressed” with what she saw and heard in attending the tour of the site. With many area residents nowadays forced to travel to larger urban areas for specialized testing, Leskiw thinks this new facility will go a long way to addressing that issue.
“What this means is less people have to go to Edmonton for bone density testing, mammogram testing and radiology,” Leskiw said. “Having a facility like this here in Cold Lake, within traveling distance of other Lakeland communities, is great.”
She added, “This is fantastic news for the entire community – it's like an early Christmas present.”
Bev Cameron will be a ultrasound technician at the new centre and, when speaking to the Nouvelle last week, she said she was excited to get started.
“We're absolutely thrilled to have this new facility in our area, it's been a long time coming and I think it's going to serve to be a real asset to the health care system in this area,” Cameron said. “Once this centre is up and running we'll have the opportunity to provide an excellent standard of service right here in our community.”
Gupta said there would be no charge to patients for procedures typically covered by Alberta Health Services.
