Existing St. Paul’s Hospital to close, new facility to open at False Creek flats

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The province has announced the existing hospital in Vancouver’s West End will be closed.

A new facility with the same name will be built on the 18.5-acre False Creek flats, in the area of Terminal Avenue and Main Street, near the train station.

Providence Health Care says the new facility will be a full-service critical care hospital with 24-hour primary care services. It will also include mental health and addictions services, ambulatory services, a low-risk birthing centre, and end-of-life care.

Providence also says it will look into building social housing in the area.

Construction could start as early as 2017.

Half of the money for the $1.2-billion project will come from the provincial government; the rest is on the shoulders of Providence Health Care, which believes it can get around $500 million from either leasing or selling the existing St. Paul’s site.

Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP MLA for Vancouver-West End, has been calling on the provincial government to replace the facility for years. But he’s unhappy with this news.

“People are calling me, upset, outraged because the premier lied to them. She stood at St. Paul’s Hospital and said we would have a renewed St. Paul’s Hospital at its current site. And now, we’re finding out she plans to close the hospital completely, pulling health care out of the centre of Downtown Vancouver.”

The new facility will be only three kilometres from the current site, but Chandra Herbert insists there needs to be one in the downtown core.

“Try getting out of downtown during the Stanley Cup riots.’ You couldn’t. The bridges were closed, the viaducts were closed, SkyTrain was closed… there was no way to get to a health care facility outside of Downtown Vancouver for people choking on tear gas, for people injured in the violence. They couldn’t leave Downtown Vancouver, even if they wanted to. So to tell me that… closing the only hospital downtown makes sense? I just don’t see it.”

Providence points out most of the province does not live within three kilometres of a hospital, and even if you call 9-1-1 from the West End, St. Paul’s might not be the best hospital for you.

It notes building the new facility at the “Station Street” location means all of the construction can happen at once, which is more efficient than building it “on a piece-meal basis,” as would have happened at the existing site. It adds the new location will allow for future development and expansion, something the Burrard Street location does not have space for.

World-renowned HIV-AID’s researcher Julio Montaner is based in the West End supports the decision to rebuild the hospital in the False Creek area.

“The reality is that we are moving a few blocks away I mean really it’s not like we are going to another continent, number one. Number two is that there are transit options that will make the West End very close,” he explains.

“The truth is the space that we currently have at St.Pauls is inappropriate. We’ve been working under suboptimal conditions for a very long time, doing very good work but really in a very suboptimal setting.”

Montaner points out a lot of the work done with his HIV-AID’s program involves health-care workers going out into the community, which will also help minimize impact.

He says the new location will offer great access to the Downtown Eastside and the people who live there.