REGINA -- Normally reserved for concerts, Agribition and the Queen City Ex, Evraz Place will soon be taking on a new look as a field hospital.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority confirmed it plans on using the International Trade Centre and Affinity Plex soccer centre at Evraz Place as a field hospital, if needed.
"We are in the midst of going forward with planning to set up the field hospital, but of course, our goal is hopefully we never have to use the field hospital," said Shelia Anderson, Incident Commander with the Integrated Health Incident Command Centre - Regina.
Evraz Place has been working closely with the SHA to prepare the facility for its conversion into a medical centre.
"Once we were told that there was no mass public gatherings that we needed to prepare our facilities and so, we essentially sanitized all the facilities, deep cleaned the facilities and had them in a state of shutdown, anticipating that this might be necessary," Evraz Place president and CEO Tim Reid said.
Reid says the Regina Exhibition Association Limited has a standing agreement with the SHA around what services they could provide during a crisis.
"In some ways this is always on the table, it’s just not activated all that often," he said. "Probably about a couple weeks ago, we had our first inventory tour to talk about what sites could be used and what could be done."
The SHA is currently working on securing supplies, such as beds, to be used in the makeshift medical centre.
Once up and running, the field hospital will add 400 beds to Regina’s acute care capacity.
"[Evraz Place] offers a variety of spaces that we could utilize, we’re still confirming how we would best use this site and it’s really early to say what type of patients would go into that field hospital," Anderson said.
"We’re really working with them on what the construction needs will be right off the start," Reid said. "Overall the process is we’ll start to get their design drawings and work with the SHA on converting spaces such as the ITC or the Affinity Plex into field hospitals."
Evraz Place is conveniently located just south of Regina’s Pasqua Hospital and Reid says they have a number of services that they can provide should the field hospital be needed.
"Obviously we’re a large employer and everything from food services to security to cleaning services and I think it’s a real benefit to collaborate with SHA," Reid said.
The field hospitals were announced as part of the SHA’s modelling and pandemic planning, which was released on Wednesday.
