WATCH: The provincial government announces a new St. Paul’s Hospital will be built at False Creek Flats. Elaine Yong has details.
After more than 100 years at its current location, Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital is set to close and a new facility will be built less than three kilometres away.
There is no timeline yet announced for the move, but the new site will be near Main Street and Terminal Avenue, on Station Street. It will take a year to do the business plan for the new site and then a decision will be made as to when the old hospital will close.
“The new St. Paul’s and integrated health care centre will be designed in a way that puts the patient at the centre of care,” says Dianne Doyle, president and CEO, Providence Health Care, in a release. “When people are patients, they are at one of the most vulnerable points in their life. This redevelopment will strengthen health care to ensure a patient’s care path—from hospital to community to home—will be as seamless as possible by using St. Paul’s range of provincial and community care services.”
Planning for the new hospital and integrated health care campus will include a new, full-service critical care hospital, 24/7 primary care services, chronic disease management services, mental health and addictions beds and programs, a low-risk birthing centre and more.
Providence Health Care says the new hospital will also include services to support those living in Vancouver’s West End and will likely include a number of social housing units to provide affordable housing options.
Residents in the area will be asked for their input on how the facility can meet the needs of those in the community.
“St. Paul’s sees some of the most vulnerable patients in the province—the frail elderly, people with persistent and chronic health conditions and those with mental health and addictions issues,” said Dr. Dan Kalla, Emergency Department Head, St. Paul’s Hospital. “This centralized approach to patient services requires a completely new campus of health care facilities. This level of personalized care simply couldn’t be done at the current constrained Burrard Street site.”
The new facility will also include centres of excellence in heart, lung, kidney and HIV/AIDS care, as well as addictions, mental health, aging and seniors’ care.
“Moving ahead with a new St. Paul’s will realize the vision of a single patient-centred acute, primary, ambulatory and community campus of care in one location,” said Mary Ackenhusen, President and CEO, Vancouver Coastal Health. “It will also benefit from VCH’s growing network of integrated primary care centres that support populations such as those living with addictions and mental health, as well as seniors and others requiring care in the community.”
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