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Hospital celebrates opening of new suite

Residents won't have to go far for two potentially life-saving tests after the grand opening of the Bonnyville Covenant Healthcare Centre's endoscopy and colposcopy suite.
Dr. Guy Lamoureux, Dr. Marli Du Toit, Dr. Joth Murphy, and Bonnyville Community Health Board chair Cathy Sandmeyer cut the ribbon on the new suite.
Dr. Guy Lamoureux, Dr. Marli Du Toit, Dr. Joth Murphy, and Bonnyville Community Health Board chair Cathy Sandmeyer cut the ribbon on the new suite.

Residents won't have to go far for two potentially life-saving tests after the grand opening of the Bonnyville Covenant Healthcare Centre's endoscopy and colposcopy suite.

Hospital staff and representatives from various community organizations gathered around the new suite for a first look on Thursday, Jan. 11.

“Thanks to our excellent staff and five contractors, we now have an endoscopy and colposcopy suite that will remind the citizens of Bonnyville that great healthcare can be accessible at home,” said Cathy Sandmeyer, Bonnyville Community Health Board chair.

The endoscopy suite will provide testing for bowel cancer, which accounts for 25 per cent of the confirmed cases of cancer each year in Alberta.

If caught in the early stages, the disease is treatable in nearly 90 per cent of cases.

“Cancer of the bowel takes up a quarter of the cancer we see in both men and women. It's around 80 to 90 per cent preventable because it doesn't start out as a cancer. The provincial plan is after a certain age we go for a test and if it's positive we go for a colonoscopy,” explained Dr. Guy Lamoureux, medical staff at the Bonnyville Covenant Healthcare Centre.

While the action plan works, treatment is not always readily available. Three years ago, the hospital recognized a need to provide testing, after wait times for a colonoscopy climbed to over one year in Edmonton.

Local residents were dealing with similar wait times, due to a lack of space available for treatment.

“Imagine going to the doctor in January, finding out you're positive, and then hearing your colonoscopy is in September 2019. The only room suitable to do these is the OR, and that's under high demand. Three years ago, we made this suite our number one priority,” Lamoureux explained.

With the addition of the colposcopy suite, the hospital will be one of the few in rural Alberta to provide that type of screening for cervical cancer.

Previously, the closest centre to provide the testing was in Edmonton, which often meant long wait times.

“This suite is going to have a positive impact in cervical cancer prevention. I think we're quite privileged to be offering this service in the community of Bonnyville,” said Dr. Marli Du Toit. “On a cold day like today, with so much snow going around, I hope residents will be benefitting from treatment so close to home.”

Thanks to fundraising within the community, the hospital was able to stay within budget of $360,000 for the project. While the process took a little longer than originally intended, the medical staff at the healthcare centre couldn't be more excited to have it up and running.

“We had hundreds of citizens and small businesses donate thousands of dollars to this suite. To all of our donors I want to say thank you. Here we are three years later, a lot of bumps in the road, a few re-dos, and a lot of delays, but now we have state-of-the-art suites we're so pleased to open,” expressed Lamoureux.

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