Lions Gate Hospital is one step closer to getting a new $170 million medical care and surgical centre, following the province’s recent approval of a concept plan for the facility.
North Shore MLAs, Vancouver Coastal Health officials and Lions Gate Hospital Foundation members delivered the news Friday at the hospital’s HOpe Centre.
The LGH Foundation also formally announced the start of a $100 million fundraising campaign to build the new medical care facility and tower for the hospital. The province also plans to fund a $26 million power plant replacement, which will happen at the same time.
Anticipated costs for the two projects combined are estimated at around $200 million, although those numbers are to be finalized in a business plan to be completed over the next 18 months.
While figures have not been confirmed, the Ministry of Health anticipates kicking-in a potential $100 million towards the capital projects, said Sacha Kennedy, spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health. The province would also be responsible for operating costs of the new facility.
“This project is urgent,” said Pierre Lebel, chair of the LGH Foundation. “Our existing 55-year-old tower has served us well… but when it comes to hospitals, 55 is not the new 30.”
The current south acute tower at LGH was opened in 1961. While it served the North Shore for many decades, a swiftly changing and aging population has created the need for a more up-to-date facility.
“While we are still a community hospital at heart, we’ve become so much more,” said Dr. Ramesh Sahjpaul, a neurosurgeon who spoke at the announcement.
“We now perform over 15,000 surgeries a year. This number is expected to grow over the years as our population ages and as the population of the Lower Mainland ages,” Sahjpaul said.
Sahjpaul added that medical teams are too often having to perform surgeries in over-crowded conditions and patients are being cared for in multi-occupancy rooms.
“This new medical and surgical tower will allow us to continue to provide the very best care for our patients,” Sahjpaul said. “We know, for example, that patients who are managed post-operatively in single-occupancy rooms have a lower rate of surgical-side infections and this translates into reduced length of stay.”
By Friday’s announcement the campaign had already raised over $50 million, including $25 million from West Vancouver philanthropist and Keith Plumbing & Heating owner Paul Myers, who made the donation in 2015. The hospital is planning to name its new tower after him.
Part of the new care facility will replace the old North Vancouver General Hospital, a heritage structure on East 13th Street that received a grand farewell last September.
The project could break ground as early as 2020, with the new acute care facility completed by 2023.
