After months of excavation and site preparation, the first concrete will be poured today at the eight-storey expansion to the Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH).

The $512-million Surrey Memorial Hospital Redevelopment and Expansion project is B.C.'s largest-ever capital investment in health care. It includes significant renovations to the existing hospital and the addition of an eight-storey critical care tower to create an unparalleled campus of care. The hospital will gain 151 beds for a total of 650.

The Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation will contribute approximately $15 million to the project. It is expected that the project will generate approximately 3,270 construction-related jobs.

As a regional centre for the Fraser Valley, as well as home hospital for one of B.C.'s fastest-growing communities, Surrey Memorial will include a greatly expanded emergency department and other improvements planned to better enable staff to offer the best possible care to individuals and families.

The ER will include separate tracks for mental-health patients, seriously ill or injured, minor illnesses or injuries and pediatric patients. The pediatric ER will have dedicated pediatric staff, as well as its own entrance to separate young patients from adults.

The emergency department is scheduled to open in 2013, with the rest of the tower anticipated to open in 2014. Ongoing renovation projects in the hospital have different completion dates.

The tower will include a 48-bed Level III neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) for high-risk infants, with an embedded pediatric pharmacy and Canada's first in-hospital Ronald McDonald House space for families. Each NICU bed has its own room, with space for family to visit and stay over.

Other medical floors will include an enlarged intensive care unit, high-acuity beds, a special stroke unit, and the ability to offer patients bedside-hemodialysis.

A new laboratory will take up one floor. Increased teaching space for the UBC School of Medicine will expand SMH's role as a teaching and research hospital.

Quick Facts:

• Once it is complete, employment at the hospital will increase by approximately 650 full-time positions, plus several dozen physicians.
• While the tower is being built, the hospital's family birthing unit is being enlarged and various infrastructure upgrades are occurring on the site to handle planned future capacity.
• There will also be a new, larger north lobby off 96 Avenue, an updated sterile processing unit and an expanded pharmacy.
• The $237-million Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre was officially opened May 31, 2011. The Outpatient Centre offers day surgery, diagnostic procedures such as lab, X-ray, CT and MRI scans, and biopsies, and specialized health programs - all in one building.
• Over the next three years, British Columbia's health-care system will benefit from investments such as new medical equipment and modernized health facilities as part of a $1.9-billion health-sector capital plan.

Media Contact:

Ryan Jabs
Media Relations Manager
Ministry of Health
250 952-1887 (media line) Fraser Health Media Pager
604 450-7881