The days of summer bring many things: heat, humidity, and for several of Northern Ontario’s major hospitals, construction.
For instance, the Timmins and District Hospital is in the midst of a 10,000-square-foot expansion to its existing facility.
According to Tim Gehrke, vice-president and CFO, work on the project began in late June, while drilling, blasting, backfill and the establishment of footing and foundations was anticipated to be completed by the third week of July.
The expansion, set to cost $2.2 million, will house six medical specialists. It will also act as the new home for administrative offices for the Timmins’ branches of North Network and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
Work is scheduled to be completed by late fall, at which point occupancy is expected to begin.
After being on hold since 2001, work on the Sudbury Regional Hospital recently took another step forward when the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal officially issued Request for Proposals this past June.
Five firms were selected following the ministry’s issuing of a Request for Qualifications in March, and a decision is expected to be made in late fall.
The hospital’s capital project is currently in Phase 2, and represents an expansion that will eventually find the city’s other two hospitals consolidating at the principal Laurentian Hospital site.
North Bay is also facing an amalgamation of sorts as the city’s General Hospital and Northeast Mental Health Centre will be consolidated into an entirely new facility.
“It’s the first time in Canada that an acute services facility and a mental health hospital will co-locate together,” says Pat Stephens, manager of public relations.
“The new facility will share many features between the two groups, such as a joint staff cafeteria and housekeeping.”
Stephens says that the new 700,000-square-foot facility represents a significant upgrade over what’s currently available. North Bay General Hospital, which has 194 beds, will be improved to 275 beds in the new building, while the mental health facility, which had 40 beds, will have 113.
Tenders for the contract have been issued to three pre-qualified consortia, and the hospital is currently awaiting the appropriate bids.
Construction is set to begin on the corner of Gormanville Road and Highway 17 West in the fall of 2006, and is expected to take 30 to 36 months to complete.
Sault Ste Marie and Algoma District area residents are also expecting to see the consolidation of their two existing hospitals in the form of a new 289-bed facility.
The new 500,000-square-foot Sault Area Hospital will be built near the corner of Great Northern Road and Third Line Road, and will be a third larger than the two existing sites combined.
The Request for Proposals is set to begin prior to October 2006. Construction on the facility is expected to begin in the latter half of summer 2007, with completion planned for late 2008. Occupancy is expected to begin in 2009.
These expansions mirror similar transitions made by two Thunder Bay area hospitals, which were officially consolidated into an entirely new building on Feb. 22, 2004. The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, an acute care facility, has featured a number of additional services as a result of the change, including an integrated Cancer Care Service, an Adolescent Psychiatric Service and a Forensics Service.
