Next month, The Lady Minto Health Care Centre (LMHCC) will be celebrating 100 years since the very first Lady Minto Hospital in the community.
“The management and staff of Lady Minto HCC couldn’t let this remarkable anniversary pass without recognizing our history in a special way,” said lifelong Edam resident and LMHCC recreation Coordinator Lynette La Clare.
The Lady Minto Hospital officially opened in February, 1917 and was the first hospital north of North Battleford. The project was built, maintained and operated by the Rural Municipalities of Turtle River and Parkdale and the Village of Edam using tax levies. The Lady Minto Cottage Hopsital Fund. The fund supported the building of cottage hospitals in remote districts across Canada. There are 43 in total across Canada, with only a few still carrying the Lady Minto name.
The plan to operate the hospital using tax dollars did not follow the laws and regulations of the Department of Public Health. The Provisional Board members and local municipal representatives sent delegation to Regina to make it legal. P.W. Farnsworth, the secretary-treasurer of the Provisional Board, believed that it was the first hospital in Saskatchewan to provide hospitalization paid for by taxes rather than by individual users.
“We are very proud of our facility’s history, right back to the first Lady Minto Hospital that served the community for 50 years – from 1917 to 1967. A new Lady Minto Union Hospital was built in Edam in the 1960s and was the home of local health care services for 25 years, from 1967 until 1992. In 1992, the Union Hospital was replaced by the new Lady Minto Health Care Center which is itself 25 years old this year,” La Clare explained.
The event will be held on August 2, from 2-4 p.m. at LMHCC. Everyone is welcome to attend and are asked to bring their own lawn chair. If the weather is bad the event will move inside.