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Originally Posted by fredinno
Oh, ok. TBF, the Heritage part is the part most likely to be kept around as a Hospital. So you’re not going to solve any problems there at least.
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It isn't. If the Heritage part gets preserved, it's likely to be as a façade, but that'll be up to whoever buys the site.
You questioned all this back in February, and I explained then "There's supposed to be a review of how continued health care will be delivered in Downtown and the West End, that will probably see a new day-use facility developed. It isn't necessarily going to involve Providence Health, who run St Paul's and it's very unlikely to be on the St Paul's site.
The oldest part of the hospital dates back to 1912 and is Heritage 'A' - the most important category. That doesn't mean it's secure - it isn't designated or protected - the owner has to make that decision. As one of the reasons to get out of the existing building is its seismic state, it doesn't seem likely that the building will be saved in its entirety, but it's possible to imagine the façades being retained as part of a commercial element of a future development, perhaps as a hotel? Residential conversion (as new build behind the façade) might be an alternate scenario, with totally new structures (presumably residential) replacing all the more recent hospital buildings.
The new arrangements haven't been announced yet. They have already opened a Urgent Primary Care Centre on Hornby that operates 8am to 10pm. That covers some of the needs already, (although it's in a building that's now proposed for redevelopment). Whether there will be a 24/7 emergency room hasn't been clarified, but UBC and Mount Saint Joseph are both closed at night (and MSJ doesn't have an ICU any more either), so we operate with two today, and the new St Paul's will be much better than the existing facility."