B.C. announces second hospital for Surrey to serve fast-growing population but construction is years away
Credit to Author: Susan Lazaruk| Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2019 23:22:20 +0000
One of the fastest-growing cities in B.C. is getting another hospital to serve its growing population, the B.C. government announced Monday.
It will be at least 2021, or even later, before construction can start on what Premier John Horgan called “the largest capital plan in Surrey’s history,” which is estimated to cost between $1 billion and $2 billion.
The building will be constructed in Cloverdale, beside the Kwantlen Polytechnic University at 55th Avenue and 108th Street, on provincial land, and will technically become Surrey’s second hospital after Surrey Memorial, although the Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock serves South Surrey residents.
Horgan said the hospital will be part of B.C.’s capital plan and “that means real money on a real project.”
The estimated cost won’t be known until after a year-long process to develop a business plan, which sets out the scale of the project and its budget. The planning process will include public participation.
After the business plan is completed, the construction will go to tender and construction would begin in the “fall of 2021, it could be 2022, we don’t want to raise any false hopes.”
It will be a large expense, given the costs of other new hospitals, including the estimated cost for the reconstruction of St. Paul’s in Vancouver, which is “in the $2-billion range,” Horgan said. “That’s (the) equivalent to Surrey Memorial Hospital in size.”
The cost for smaller hospitals in Terrace is estimated at $400 million-$500 million and in Williams Lake at $300 million.
Surrey’s new hospital will have inpatient beds, an emergency department, operating rooms, outpatient services, and lab and diagnostic services.
Horgan said Surrey grows by 1,000 residents a month, which works out to at least 100,000 a decade. B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said the hospital is a key commitment to help meet the health-care needs of Surrey’s rapidly growing community.
The population of Surrey was 517,000, according to the 2016 Statistics Canada census, up more than 10 per cent from the 2011 census. It’s second in population to Vancouver, at 613,000, according to the 2016 census, and the province said the city is expected to become the most-populous city by 2041.
Vancouver has three large hospitals, Vancouver General, St. Paul’s and UBC, the smaller Mount St. Joseph, as well as the specialized B.C. Women’s and B.C. Children’s hospitals.
The province said ER visits in Surrey are expected to increase to 221,000 by 2027, up from 153,000 in 2017, and surgeries up to 63,000 from 47,000 over the same time period.
Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, welcomed the news and said it will incorporate “virtual health-care services,” and will complement the care provided by Surrey Memorial and the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre.
The announcement Monday was attended by Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum and a number of Surrey members of the B.C. legislature, all of whom supported the move to build a new hospital to improve access and modernize care.
“And the economy will be boosted through the construction jobs created once work gets underway,” said Surrey-Whalley MLA Bruce Ralston in a news release.
The site where a new hospital will be built is seen adjacent to Kwantlen Polytechnic University Tech Learning Centre, in Surrey, B.C., on Monday December 9, 2019.
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