NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C.—Lions Gate Hospital will soon have a new tower for North Shore and coastal residents in B.C.
The province announced work has begun on the patient care tower. The hospital’s service area includes the Sea-to-Sky corridor, Sunshine Coast, Powell River, Bella Bella and Bella Coola on the Central Coast, as well as local Indigenous communities.
“It’s an exciting day for people in the region as shovels are going in the ground for the new tower,” said Adrian Dix, minister of health, in a press release. “People will be able to get quality, publicly funded health care in a state-of-the-art facility, which will also help attract and retain health care workers in the Coastal Community of Care as they prepare for any challenges that may lay ahead.”
The six-storey Paul Myers Tower, named after the philanthropic owner of Keith Plumbing and Heating Co. Ltd, will have eight operating rooms, a pre-operative and post-operative care area, including anesthesia intervention and isolation rooms. There will be 108 beds in 84 single rooms. All will have ensuite washrooms. Myers donated $25 million for the project.
The new acute care tower will be built on the current Lions Gate Hospital site where the former North Vancouver General Hospital was located. Also known as the Activation building, it was demolished in spring 2017.
Vancouver Coastal Health is working in collaboration with representatives from the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations to ensure both the design of the new tower and the services provided support the provision of culturally safe care.
The tower is expected to be completed in 2024.
The project’s $310 million budget will be shared between the province, Vancouver Coastal Health and a $100-million fundraising campaign by the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation.
“People on the North Shore deserve to know that there’s a modern, high-quality hospital facility available in their community if they or their loved ones ever find themselves in the position to require acute care,” said Bowinn Ma, minister of state for infrastructure and MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale. “Our government’s decision to take action on building a new Lions Gate Hospital tower is incredibly important to our community and I’m pleased to see construction underway.”
Lions Gate Hospital currently has 254 beds, eight operating rooms and a variety of diagnostic services and equipment.
Chief Jen Thomas of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation praised the project as a step towards regaining the trust of the Indigenous community.
“As Indigenous Peoples, we have had a long and complicated history with the health care system, and we look forward to walking a new path with Vancouver Coastal Health to ensure that the historical and systemic racism and discrimination documented in the In Plain Sight report by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is not repeated when it comes to providing care for our Tsleil-Waututh community,” said Thomas. “We are hopeful about forging a new relationship with Vancouver Coastal Health to ensure we are on the path to transformative change together and that this relationship is, in the sense of true partnership, collaboratively planning health services for our Tsleil-Waututh people.”
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