London's Hospital Developments & Research

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$200 million for London hospital projects

Fri, August 31, 2007

New children's hospital, women's care centre to be built

By RANDY RICHMOND, SUN MEDIA



A massive hospital building project in London got long awaited approval yesterday to wrap up the bulk of the work, worth an estimated $200 million.

The province announced London hospitals can take bids on completion of a new children’s hospital and women’s care centre at Victoria Hospital and the final renovations at St. Joseph’s and University hospitals.

When that work is done, the aging South Street hospital can be closed.

“This is a very, very important milestone for the London hospitals and one that we have been waiting for quite some time,” Cliff Nordal, president of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London, said yesterday.

“This is the biggest piece of the project to happen. When this is finished, we move the staff and patients (from South Street) and we lock the doors. That has been an ideal talked about in this community for . . . a long time.”

The bids should be received this fall and work should begin next year, hospital and government officials said yesterday.

“This is a huge step,” said Chris Bentley, Liberal MPP for London West. “They don’t want me to throw out a number but . . . I suspect you are going to need upwards of $100 million and if someone said $200 million you might be in there.”

The first plans to restructure and merge London’s hospitals surfaced in the mid-90s, as the provincial government began retooling health care and insisting communities eliminate duplication at hospitals.

For the next 12 years, the restructuring and merging of facilities run by London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London took place in fits and starts, with some deadlines — such as the expected closing of South Street in 2000, missed.

Symbolic of the amount of work still to be done is the empty 10-storey north tower at Victoria Hospital, where yesterday’s announcement took place.

“When this project is complete, this doorway will open into one of the most exciting new health-care facilities in Canada,” said Peter Johnson, vice-chair of the LHSC board. Besides the new home of the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario, the tower will house a new birthing centre, neonatal intensive care unit and outpatient mental health care.

It will also house diagnostic labs, teaching facilities and a 350-seat auditorium.

The final phase of work at St. Joseph’s Health Care will see a 112,000-square-foot renovation and a 4,000-square-foot addition that will provide space for citywide opthamology services, diabetes, and ear, nose and throat services.

“This will provide much needed clinical space,” said Gerald Killan, vice-chair of St. Joseph’s Health Care board.

In an interview after the announcement, Bentley said the timing of the approval was not connected to the Oct. 10 provincial election.

Over the past three years, the province has changed its funding and bidding processes, reduced the share communities have to raise and given money for hospital construction, Bentley said

“We have been working very hard for the past three years to make today possible.”

The approval is not a blank cheque, Bentley added.

The bids will have to be evaluated, he said.

There will be some “cleanup” construction to do after this next phase, Nordal said.

This project doesn’t include the construction of two mental health facilities — one in London and one in St. Thomas — expected to go to tender in 2009.