The pharmacy at the Wrinch Memorial Hospital in Hazelton will be put up for sale after Northern Health takes over the hospital on April 1.
United Church Health Services (UCHS) announced last September it would transfer the hospital to Northern Health (NH), which already co-manages the facility.
UCHS, which has been running the hospital for more than 100 years, said it could no longer afford to manage it.
Details about the imminent handover, including the future of the hospital pharmacy and dental clinic, were outlined at a public meeting in New Hazelton today.
The hospital, its medical clinic, land and staff housing will all be transferred to NH on April 1.
UCHS will sell the pharmacy but a decision on who will manage the dental clinic has not been made.
NH Northwest chief operating officer Penny Anguish told the crowd of about 40 people her organization was aware that the dental and pharmacy services were important to the community.
She said NH could step in to run the clinic or pharmacy if it was needed to keep the services running.
“As a health organization we don’t run retail pharmacy typically, we don’t typically run a dental clinic, but we recognize there is a reason it is set up that way in this community,” said Anguish.
“Depending on some decisions that get made over this next while, we will transfer that dental clinic to Northern Health if that is the best way to make sure that service continues.”
Anguish said no jobs would be lost as a result of the transfer.
More to come in the Jan. 27 edition of The Interior News.
