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Sign of change going up at St. Joe’s site
New state-of-the-art mental health facility not expected to include urgent care centre

By Mark Newman, News Staff

News
Nov 27, 2008

Putting up a sign is normally not a big deal. But for officials at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, the planned unveiling of a new sign at 10 a. m. Nov. 29 to mark the multi-million dollar redevelopment of their 35-hectare (87-acre) Mountain campus at Fennell and West 5th is a huge step forward.

“It’s a landmark for us in terms of moving ahead with the rebuild,” Dr. Robert Zipursky, chief of psychiatry and vice-president for mental health services at St. Joseph’s health-care Hamilton, said of the former Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital redevelopment.

Ontario Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, George Smitherman is expected to be on hand for the unveiling.

Dr. Zipursky said the new 301-bed hospital (there are 215 beds there now) will be a state-of-the-art mental health care centre offering a variety of in-patient and outpatient programs and services in an open and accessible environment.

However, despite other media reports, the new facility will not be providing urgent care services to the community.

“There are no plans to have an urgent care centre based at this site,” said Dr. Zipursky, who noted some other services such as specialty medical clinics and diagnostic imaging— X-rays, CT and MRI scans — are planned for the new hospital.

Dr. Zipursky said the existing buildings on the site, which date back to the late 1950s, are no longer adequate for providing the kind of mental health services St. Joes wishes to offer.

He said he sees the new hospital as a major teaching facility for doctors, nurses, social workers and other mental health professionals.

“This will be the central site for training for mental health care in our region,” said Dr. Zipursky, who noted mental health matters can no longer be hidden away out of sight as one in five adults are affected by some form of mental illness each year.

In addition, the new facility is expected to be a leader when it comes to research in a variety of mental health areas including depression, anxiety disorders and addictions.

“We are planning to have extensive resources to support mental health research,” Dr. Zipursky said.

Functional planning work to determine the number of beds, clinics and other services to be provided at the new hospital is well underway and should be completed by the end of this year.

Dr. Zipursky said St. Joes will put out a request for qualifications for a design architect next spring and they expect to select a design architect and construction consortium by the end of next year.

The cost of the project and look of the new building will be determined in this phase. Construction should begin in early 2010 and be completed by 2014.

The existing hospital will be torn down once the new facility is completed, Dr. Zipurksy said.