Unique healthcare transition centre for kids to be built in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Vancouver will be home to a unique transition centre for children and teens with extraordinary healthcare needs, the province announced Monday.

Patients under 19 years old will have access to treatment, as well as support for their parents and caregivers at a new children’s complex care transition facility, the first of its kind in B.C.

“The children’s complex care transition centre, operated by the BC Children’s Hospital, is an opportunity to show innovation by filling gaps in much-needed services and supports for children and young people with complex care needs and will be complementary to what is currently provided in acute care and community settings,” Health Minister Adrian Dix says in a release.

The complex care transition centre will serve as a stepping-stone between acute hospital care, community care and home. Care will be provided by an interdisciplinary team of doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals.

“While other jurisdictions in Canada offer similar services through separate programs, this will be the first centre in the country to provide such a comprehensive range of supports for children with medical complexity at a single site,” Dix added.

The integrated campus — to be built at the current site of the Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children on Slocan near 22nd Avenue– is slated for completion within 10 years.

Sunnyhill — which first opened in 1931 — is in the process of re-locating to the new BC Children’s complex near King Edward and Oak Street.

Ani Khoudian wishes such a facility was around when her son was born 14 years ago. She was told he would die before he turning two.

“This would have added extra confidence knowing that there was an entire team giving us the necessary tools to succeed,” she said. “As I struggled, I thought about how so many families would not have the strength and ability to protect their children,” she said.

“I found the experience of caring for a child with life-long complex needs extremely overwhelming and very isolating,” she said. “There was no one to help understand and keep track of all the information that we were being given by Anthony’s doctors and therapists.”

The virtual campus and provincewide community-based care network will extend the reach of the centre to every area of B.C. and will also include training and support for caregivers and clinicians.

“Nearly 8,000 children with complex medical and physical needs have accessed BC Children’s Hospital services in the past two years, and that population is only expected to grow,” says Benoit Morin, president and CEO, Provincial Health Services Authority.

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