Swift Current's new long-term care facility celebrated its official opening yesterday morning.

The housewarming event at the Meadows included a press conference, that was led by Cypress Health Region CEO Beth Vachon who introduced Greg Ottenbreit, the Minister of Rural and Remote Health.

The Yorkton MLA thought that "a housewarming" was the perfect description of yesterday's event.

"I like how Beth (Vachon) described it as a housewarming because you look at the facility driving up, you walk through the facility and realized it really is a home. That's the new focus of all the new long-term care facilities that are being built, particularly this one, it truly is a house for the residents and their families that come to visit the residence here," Ottenbreit said Friday Morning.    

Following the speech by Ottenbreit, the Cypress Regional Health Authority Chair Lyle Quintin shared his thoughts.

"This facility represents the Cypress Health Region very well. It has been built in a unique way, that has put the residents as the focal point, this is, after all, their home and it had been built to reflect that," Quintin said.  

After the speeches Greg Ottenbreit was called upon to open a time capsule from January 21, 1964 that was found inside a wall at the Palliser Regional Care Centre, the capsule was discovered while making final preparations to close the facility.

Inside the rectangular box was a Swift Current Sun newspaper, photos of the residents from the Palliser Regional Care Centre, blueprints for the cupboards installed inside the Palliser Regional Care Centre and a promotional package for the Palliser Regional Care Centre.

Vachon spoke about the positive feedback the Cypress Health Region has been receiving on the Meadows.

"People are really appreciating what we've been able to do with the type of design, the small homes, cooking food in each house so that people can smell the food cooking, it stimulates their appetites. People are saying they're sleeping better because there aren't long hallways with carts going up and down and it's quite. People can get up when they want to, they don't have to be in the dining room because breakfast is being served at 8. They can have toast and porridge at 10 if that's when they get up," she said.

The 225-bed facility recently received national recognition, by being awarded the Silver Award recipient in the infrastructure category for the 2016 National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships (P3s), by the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP).