Six-year-old Sammy Holmes was presented a ceremonial key to the new Teck Acute Care Centre by Vancouver-False Creek MLA Sam Sullivan today, on behalf of Health Minister Terry Lake, commemorating the many milestones achieved by the BC Children’s and BC Women’s Redevelopment Project.

“The new Teck Acute Care Centre is the direct result of years of hard work and dedication of many individuals and community partners,” Lake said. “The opening this fall ensures that children like Sammy, along with women and families throughout B.C., will continue to have access to the best in health and patient care for many years to come.”

Sammy and his family will hold the key for safe keeping on behalf of the Minister of Health until the Provincial Health Services Authority officially receives the keys from Affinity Partnerships once construction is complete in July 2017.

“We’re nearing completion of this new facility and I’m honoured to hand the ceremonial key to Sammy for safekeeping,” Sullivan said. “The new hospital will help ensure we continue to deliver exceptional care to patients who travel here from throughout British Columbia.”

(flickr.com)

In 2010, Sammy was born two-weeks premature with Down syndrome at BC Women’s Hospital. He spent the first few days of his life in an incubator in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). A week after going home, he was rushed to the emergency department with congestive heart failure, followed by another week in the hospital. At four months old, he had surgery at BC Children’s Hospital to repair a hole in his heart.

“This new facility truly belongs to children, women and families across B.C. Every aspect of this building, from single-patient rooms to increased natural lighting in the layouts, was designed with our patients and their families’ overall health and wellness in mind. We look forward to welcoming patients to this incredible facility when it opens this fall,” said Tim Manning, board chair, Provincial Health Services Authority.

When the Teck Acute Care Centre opens in fall 2017, patients like Sammy and his parents will have access to features like the expanded NICU and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), designed with family-centred care in mind. The renovated NICU and PICU include single-patient rooms that provide supportive environments for both short-stay patients and those that require longer-term stays or more complex care.

The BC Children’s and BC Women’s Redevelopment Project, an initiative of the Provincial Health Services Authority, is a three-phase, multi-year project to build the new Teck Acute Care Centre and renovate existing facilities at BC Children’s Hospital and BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre that began in 2011. The project will also relocate the Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children to the Oak Street campus. The total cost of the three-phase redevelopment project is estimated at $678 million.

The B.C. government is making record investments in modern, safe infrastructure projects throughout the province. In doing so, these construction projects are creating well-paying, family-supporting jobs. These investments are possible because of the fiscal plan of the B.C. government.

Quick Facts:

• Many milestones achieved toward the completion of the Teck Acute Care Centre to-date include:
• Between 2006 and 2012:
  • Ministry of Health approved the business case and funding.
  • Architects, clinical teams, hospital staff and leaders began designing how the new hospital would function, and conceptualizing its needs and layout.
  • Hundreds of health-care providers, hospital staff, designers, families and donors walked through full-scale, 3D mock ups of patient-care and procedure rooms to visualize and plan.
• Between 2014 and 2017:
  • Affinity Partnerships was selected to design, build, finance and maintain the new hospital.
  • Buildings were demolished, removing approximately 240 tonnes of material each day.
  • 32,600 cubic metres of concrete was poured for the foundation.
  • Additional landscaping, art, healing gardens and the one-kilometre Wellness Walkway installation began on the campus.
  • The “colours and critters” wayfinding design feature was unveiled.
  • BC Women’s Hospital Urgent Care Centre renovation began.
  • A topping off ceremony took place April 2016 which celebrated the structural completion of all levels.
• When complete in fall 2017, the hospital will be 59,400 square metres (640,000 square feet) of clinical space on eight floors with 231 single-patient rooms.
• It will include medical and surgical inpatient units, an emergency department, medical imaging, procedural suites, a hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplant department, a pediatric intensive care unit, a high-risk labour and delivery suite and a new neonatal intensive care unit.

Learn More:

For more information on the redevelopment project, visit www.newcw.ca