New hospital in 7 years
CEO optimistic new facility can be ready in 2032
If everything goes well, our new hospital could open in seven years, says CEO Jeff Hohenkerk.
In an interview, Hohenkerk said he’s told staff that this project needs to be done well to meet local needs now and for the future, because it will probably be 80 years before the province does another round of hospital construction.
The first step is to review the initial submission that was presented to the health ministry 2½ years ago to ensure that it meets the latest requirements for things such as infection control. “There are new standards that we want to make sure that were actually included in the early proposal,” he said.
The hospital also needs to prepare a comprehensive report on what needs to be included in the new facility, based on an updated look at community needs. It has undertaken surveys in the past. Those will be reviewed by a subcommittee of the hospital’s board and reviewed with community members.
“We need to decide based on understanding the needs of the community, what type of hospital we need to design -- what programs, what layout, how many floors, how many surgical floors, surgical rooms, physio rooms, common rooms, exercise rooms and all that,” Hohenkerk said.
Once that updated report is submitted to the ministry, it will suggest a couple of existing hospitals that meet similar needs, and the designers will examine them to get ideas for our facility.
Hohenkerk said it’s estimated the new hospital will cost $400-450 million and the community will have to raise about 10 per cent of that, so about $45 million. That’s the current target adopted by the Campbellford Memorial Hospital Foundation.
An important part of the design will be using the latest medical knowledge, such as, for example, what was learned about the spread of disease during our fight with COVID-19.
“A good example would be negative pressure rooms where you have proper flow of air and places where you take off isolation gowns and put on clean clothes. All these things will be put into our design of the future.”
The hospital also needs some quick action from the municipality. First off, the 48 acres Jim Curle has offered to donate needs to be severed and rezoned. At the same time, the municipality needs to start planning to extend sewer and water services to site.
Hohenkerk noted that municipalities usually contribute money to a local hospital, but one option is for Trent Hills to pay the cost of extending those services.
Hohenkerk predicted that the new Sunny Life Recreation & Wellness Centre and the new hospital will spur residential growth.
“I see this as a growth area once the word gets out and we get closer to a new hospital,” he said. “If we meet all the milestones and every partner pulls their weight. I think we can get this done in seven years.”
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