Open Health Niverville begins facility expansion project

Open Health Niverville is beginning work on their facility expansion project this week.

President of Niverville Health Care Services Inc. and town of Niverville councilor, Nathan Dueck says, this has been in the planning stages for a few years now.

He says, “we've recently made arrangements with the Niverville Heritage Centre to pick up some extra space, which we are excited about.”

He notes, the Open Health clinic will grow by 970 sq ft, adding 15 examination rooms. “Effectively we're going to be creating a whole new entire section which would create space for a lab, minor procedures and the ability to add extra rooms, which will give doctors more space to work.”

Dueck says the reason for the expansion project is mostly because the town council and those at NHCSI wanted to keep healthcare viable in their community.

“When it comes to our game plan for the future, Niverville is probably one of the fastest growing communities in the region without medical facilities. And when it comes down to it, we have options where we can wait to play catch up, in regard to what direction the province and the health authority wants to go, or we can take the ownership and the leadership and start pushing forward through it ourselves.”

Dueck notes patients attending Open Health are from across the southeast. “So, it's open to the whole entire area and we're excited to increase the number of doctors we have on staff and continue to grab people from the surrounding areas to expand our facility and have them visit Niverville as their new destination for healthcare.”

Open Health Niverville currently has 12 full-time and part-time doctors with a few specialists on the Board and are now making room to hire four more doctors.

Dueck says, “This expansion is just one more step towards fulfilling Open Health Niverville’s vision to be a regional hub in providing timely and effective health care services. As more and more residents are seeing the benefit of receiving health care right in their own community, and this is creating the welcomed need to expand our facility and bring more doctors on staff.”

“Our goal is that if we have to grow our own healthcare, we'll find it relatively easy to do so, as long as we're providing a great facility for staff and patients. We want to create a facility where workplace enjoyment and word of mouth about our growing community will draw in more patients and attract doctors hoping to work in rural Manitoba."

The total budget of the Open Health Niverville expansion project is $100,000 and will be funded in the form of a grant from the town of Niverville.

Dueck explains, “So, Open Health is owned by a not-for-profit company, Niverville Healthcare Services, Inc and at the end of the day, the funding for the expansion is going to be coming from the community, and Open Health will, over the next little bit, be paying back the monies to the community through different sets of loans and grants.”

Dueck says, the project will officially begin on Wednesday, May 15 and be completed by early 2025.