Dryden Hospital Bustling With Activity

The Dryden Regional Health Centre is seeing more people walk through its doors.
The fiscal year came to an end on March 31st and the final statistics have been released.
They show that service levels are up considerably.
CEO Wade Petranik says they saw a spike in patient days, clinic visits, specialty visits and surgical procedures.
Petranik notes they did see a drop in emergency room visits by about 600-patients from last year.
He notes that number may indicate that access is getting better in primary care clinics.
The occupancy rate at the hospital for the year was 75%, a pretty good level according to Petranik.
He notes they were challenged a couple of times with more patients then beds.
Petranik notes the first case was after Christmas and the second was last week.
He’s hoping that’s not going to be a pattern.