The provincial government has announced $860.8 million will be put towards upgrading and expanding Richmond Hospital, including building a new nine-floor acute care tower and adding more emergency room capacity.
Premier John Horgan and Health Minister Adrian Dix made the announcement on the approved business plan and timelines for the project at the hospital Tuesday morning.
The new tower, which will be named the Yurkovich Family Pavilion, will include an intensive care unit, an emergency department with 82 spaces, up from 60, and 11 operating rooms, up from eight. There will also be more pre- and post-surgical care spaces, increasing from 26 to 69.
It will also have a fully-equipped medical imaging department with four CT scanners and two MRIs, a pharmacy and short-stay pediatrics.
Dix said the province would get the project under construction and built “over the next few years.”
“This is a hospital for the 21st century...This is the hospital we need,” said Dix.
The new tower is expected to be ready for patients in 2028.
There will also be other improvements made to the hospital, including the redevelopment of the south tower to create new in-patient psychiatry and psychiatric emergency units, as well as a maternity ward and neonatal intensive care unit.
The Milan Ilich Pavilion will also be redeveloped and be home to the cancer care clinic, outpatient clinics and the UBC school of medicine.
The south tower and Milan Ilich Pavilion are scheduled for completion in 2029.
In July 2020, Horgan came to the hospital and said the plan was expanding from what was originally announced, adding several hundred million dollars to the project.
“Often times, in these sorts of situations, people want immediate success. They want to move quickly and I normally would agree with that. But in this instance, taking another year to get it right, means that we have a better facility coming forward,” said Horgan on Tuesday.
More to come...
