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Yutthé Dene Nakóhódí "A Place to Heal Northern People" is the name of the new Athabasca Basin Health Facility scheduled to open in November of 2002.
The Athabasca Health Authority is one of the first health authorities in Canada to have established integrated federal, provincial and First Nations health services. It is the first time a provincial government has agreed to build a hospital on reserve. The project started in 1994 with the formation of a steering committee. In 1996, a framework agreement was signed to establish the joint authority. In January 1999, a Unanimous Members Agreement (U.M.A.) signed at Black Lake confirmed that the Athabasca First Nations Bands and provincial communities will jointly administer health services in the region.
The building is centrally located in the Athabasca Health Authority on the Chicken I.R. #224 near the community of Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan. The facility is owned and operated by the Athabasca Health Authority Inc., accountable to the community, and staffed - wherever possible - by people from the region. The new hospital and community health facility will provide full service acute and long term care. The building contains spaces for emergency and ambulatory care, community and education services, a laboratory, radiology department, inpatient care including birthing, administrative services, food services, housekeeping and laundry, staff facilities, storage and receiving and building operations.
Regional community residents were instrumental in developing the organization and layout of the rooms, as well as the shape of the facility. The patients' rooms face the beautiful Fond Du Lac River, and the building contains local indigenous designs to strongly reflect the community priorities to utilize natural and contextual materials and colours. Natural restoration of the site will be the primary means of keeping the landscape contextual, maintainable and economically feasible.
The Athabasca Health Facility will be a flexible and energy efficient environment, designed to support advanced medical technology. The building systems and components have been selected with respect to the local climate, freight requirements, emergency power, and local labour force skills and opportunities.
The new facility will provide a setting for both modern and traditional native health care practices, and provide an integrated and holistic means of supporting, nurturing and restoring physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health. Traditional values, concepts and health practices will be maintained, respected and understood in partnership with contemporary health care.
The Athabasca Health Authority is currently fundraising $1 million to help furnish the facility and purchase the much needed equipment. So far, Cameco Corporation and Cogema Resources Inc., two of the largest producers of uranium in the world, have made a combined donation of $200,000 to the facility.
The Athabasca Health Authority is the northernmost geographic health service area covering 59,680 sq. km. along the Northwest Territory border. Close to 3,000 residents live on the shores of Lake Athabasca and Black Lake in five communities. The two participating First Nations, Font du Lac and Black Lake, comprise 83% of the regional population, and the remaining 17% live in the three provincial communities of Stony Rapids, Uranium City and Camsell Portage. More than 90% of all residents are members of First Nations and other aboriginal groups. The neighbouring Hatchet Lake First Nation and its 1,000 members will also receive regional services from the facility.
The entire district is currently serviced by a single hospital located in Uranium City.