After a long journey, residents of the Town of Sylvan Lake and area received the news they’ve been waiting for from the Alberta government.

Today in front of a packed house the Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman announced that access to after-hours urgent care at the Sylvan Lake Community Health Centre will finally be a reality for the town.

The existing health centre will also receive $2 million worth of renovations and will include a laboratory and diagnostic imaging services, with the facility operating 16 hours per day, seven days a week.

“Even though the price of oil is down, we know that the needs of the community and surrounding area have only gone up,” Hoffman said.

“Obviously I wish this had been done by the previous government at a previous time, but here I am today and we’re going to move forward to make sure we expand the care for Sylvan Lake, the visitors and surrounding communities.”

Since 2011 the Sylvan Lake and Urgent Care Committee have been lobbying the government for after-hours access for its 22,000 residents, who've had to make the trek to the Red Deer Regional Hospital for non-life threatening emergencies. 

Physician Dr. Brad Bahler said for years local doctors were providing an after-hours on-call service to residents, but they had to discontinue in June of last year because it was unsustainable.

“The model where we had a physician on call 24 hours a day without any support was probably unsafe for both community members and the physicians,” Bahler explained.

“What we saw when that model had to be abandoned was that it increased pressure on after hours care in other facilities.” 

Bahler added the announcement is the first step to a broader solution in redefining how care is offered to residents in rural Alberta.

Sean McIntyre, Mayor of Sylvan Lake, said together the community has raised $197,000 which will be handed over to Alberta Health Services for the purchase of equipment.

“They’ve been active, they’ve been patient and they’ve been everything that they could be,” McIntyre said.

“Now to see their efforts be rewarded by the government with a good news announcement like this is very rewarding and is something we can all celebrate.”

McIntryre explained the announcement will benefit not only the town but neighbouring municipalities such as Eckville, Norglenwald, Bentley and Red Deer County, who threw all off their support behind Sylvan Lake in achieving after hours urgent care.

Renovations are expected to start this spring with after-hours care and expanded services beginning early next year.