A replacement for the 125-year-old landmark St. Paul’s Hospital is scheduled to open in 2026, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix and Premier John Horgan announced Friday.
Dix acknowledged that the project has been announced over and over since 2003, a year after it was found to be unsafe in an earthquake like many other masonry buildings. This announcement is different because “none of these other announcements had money attached,” he said.
The replacement cost is budgeted at $1.9 billion, to build a new facility outside the downtown peninsula that will provide 115 net new beds. On hand for the announcement was billionaire philanthropist Jim Pattison, who has donated $75 million to hospitals in Surrey, Saskatchewan and elsewhere. The 18-acre site will be called St. Paul’s at the Jim Pattison Medical Centre.
Horgan noted that St. Paul’s is a specialty surgical centre for patients across the province, including heart transplants.
@tomfletcherbc
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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