City staff are expected to be crunching large numbers over the next few months amid discussions over Hamilton’s aging hospitals and how many hundreds of millions the municipality will need to put toward a $3.7-billion redevelopment plan.
Representatives for the city’s two health-care systems appeared before councillors this week seeking some $462 million to cover a “local share” of financing needed to activate provincial funding to aid developments at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph’s Healthcare (SJHH).
St. Joe’s interim president John Aldis told a city committee the investments are “significant” and “critically important” to the city’s future growth in health care.
Key factors driving a 25-year development are a need to modernize equipment, expansions to mitigate overcrowded facilities and updates that will attract health-care professionals to the city.
He says the city’s backing is needed to access Ministry of Health funding since it’s required prior to approval.
“There must be a local share commitment signed by the hospital and the foundation, which would typically include the commitment of the municipalities,” Aldis explained.
Facilities targeted for the major redevelopment include the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre as well as HHS’s East Hamilton Mountain site, St. Peter’s Hospital and SJHH’s Charlton site.
“But time has marched on and those buildings are now circa 1930, 40, 50, and they’re in bad need of replacement,” HHS executive vice-president and chief operating officer Sharon Pierson added.
“Certainly they’re very difficult to maintain, they’re hard to heat, hard to cool … and every year they get more permeable to rain and certainly they’re overcrowded.”
About 83 per cent of redevelopment funding is expected to come from the province, equating to some $3.1 billion, with some $166 million coming from hospital foundations.
In June, the networks came before the council and submitted that they had little “financial capacity” to contribute to capital redevelopment through debt financing or their own reserves.
HHS CEO Rob MacIsaac characterized the process “as a big hill to climb,” suggesting the municipality and the hospitals needed to come together and start to “think about options.”
Discussions have continued since the summer and both St. Joe’s and HHS executives, along with city staff, are expected to report back early next year with financing options.