Lloydminster Hospital’s medical imaging, laboratory, and pharmacy services are the foundation every other part of the health system depends on. A health assessment says all three are under strain, and a provincial border running through the middle of the city is making every problem harder to solve.
Every diagnosis starts somewhere. A CT scan. A blood test. A pharmacist checking for a dangerous drug interaction. Before a surgeon operates, before a psychiatrist assesses, before a patient goes home with a prescription, the diagnostic services have to work.
In Lloydminster, the Lloydminster Health Service Needs Assessment says they are working. It also says they are under significant and growing strain, and that a provincial border running through the middle of the city is making every problem harder to fix than it needs to be.
One CT scanner
Lloydminster Hospital’s Medical Imaging Department handles approximately 18,700 patient visits annually, a four per cent increase from two years ago. Nearly 60 per cent of those patients come from the emergency department.
The department operates X-ray, CT, Ultrasound, Mammography, Fluoroscopy, and a periodic mobile MRI unit available on the Alberta side. What it does not have is a backup CT scanner.
“Reliance on a single CT scanner creates a significant service risk, as downtime from maintenance or repair disrupts continuity of care,” the assessment states.
When that scanner goes down, patients are diverted to Wainwright or North Battleford. The assessment notes both have their own limitations. Wainwright lacks specialty services required for urgent scans. North Battleford has staffing resource constraints. Diversion arrangements are “largely informal, without standardized protocols,” the document states.
CT demand has increased by more than 10 per cent since 2018-19. In months when staffing shortfalls hit, CT capacity has dropped to as few as 350 patients. The typical monthly average is more than 500.
Mammography tells a different story. Screening volumes dropped 29 per cent over the last year, from 361 patients in 2022-23 to 257 in 2024-25. The assessment notes patients have been travelling to other sites since the COVID-19 pandemic “due to insufficient staffing at the site.”
By 2040, the Medical Imaging Department will need to accommodate approximately 25,800 annual patients, a 38 per cent increase from 2024 levels.
The assessment recommends maintaining CT as the central diagnostic tool with structured diversion protocols for downtime, exploring a fixed MRI resource at the regional level, and establishing a coordination function to manage referrals and data sharing across both provinces.
The lab that became a walk-in clinic
Lloydminster Hospital Laboratory was designed for acute and urgent testing. It was not designed to function as a community outpatient collection site.
It has become one anyway.
“The Lloydminster Hospital laboratory was not designed or resourced to function as a community outpatient collection site, yet it has increasingly assumed this role,” the assessment states. “Outpatient demand, particularly from Saskatchewan residents, has grown significantly, overwhelming both staff capacity and infrastructure.”
Annual hospital laboratory orders increased by 13 per cent between 2019-20 and 2024-25, growing from approximately 468,000 orders to 529,000 orders. Outpatient laboratory testing demand specifically grew by 20 per cent in the same period.
The reason Saskatchewan residents use the hospital lab instead of the Alberta Precision Laboratories site on the Alberta side is simple: lab results from the APL site are not accessible through Saskatchewan’s electronic health record systems. So patients who want their Saskatchewan doctor to see their results go to the hospital lab instead, regardless of what the lab was built for.
On the Alberta side, the problem runs the other direction.
“CT and other imaging performed in Lloydminster is not automatically uploaded into Alberta’s NetCare system, leaving Alberta providers without direct access to results unless specifically requested,” the assessment states.
A patient scanned at Lloydminster Hospital may have their Alberta doctor phone to request results. If they do not, the doctor does not know the scan happened.
“This dynamic contributes to duplication of testing, delays in care, and additional pressure on the hospital laboratory,” the document states.
Laboratory staff wages in Saskatchewan are lower than in Alberta. The hospital laboratory, located on the Saskatchewan side, faces persistent recruitment and retention challenges as a result. The assessment identifies the wage differential as a “persistent disadvantage in attracting and retaining qualified staff, especially in a border city where Alberta positions are often seen as more competitive.”
Pharmacy: caught between two systems
Hospital pharmacy in Lloydminster is described in the assessment as currently functioning effectively. The assessment is equally clear that the current model has structural problems that will worsen without action.
“Pharmacy services face inefficiencies from bi-provincial differences in legislation, formularies, and drug approval processes,” the assessment states.
SHA pharmacy services are primarily funded for acute care, leaving gaps in transitional care, long-term care, and specialized programs. Pharmacists are confined to a dispensary rather than embedded in clinical units, “reducing their ability to contribute directly to patient care,” the document states.
The assessment projects pharmacy demand will reach approximately 29,100 earned hours by 2040. It recommends expanding pharmacist involvement in clinical care, redesigning space to enable closer integration of pharmacy staff with clinical teams, and establishing cross-provincial data sharing agreements.
The thread running through all three
The assessment identifies a pattern across all three diagnostic service areas: a provincial border that creates duplication, delays, information gaps, and a recruitment disadvantage, in every direction.
“Jurisdictional barriers between Alberta and Saskatchewan further complicate referrals, reporting and patient navigation,” the document states of medical imaging. The same language appears, in different forms, in the laboratory section and the pharmacy section.
The assessment was delivered to both governments in December 2025. It contained specific recommendations for addressing cross-provincial data sharing in each of these three service areas.
Neither province has announced action on any of them.
Read more: Lloydminster Health Needs Assessment: Investigation
