Health minister eyes new plan to revive hospital at its original Burrard site without downgrading services

Tamara Baluja
Province

The B.C. health ministry’s original plans for a move and downgrade of St. Paul’s Hospital were met with a public outcry. St. Paul’s supporters greeted the new plan with cautious optimism. Ric Ernst— png files

The B.C. government says plans to move St. Paul’s Hospital’s aging facilities to another site have come off the table for the time being.

Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon said he has received a proposal from Providence Health Care, which operates St. Paul’s Hospital, to revitalize the hospital at its original site, without downgrading services, such as the emergency room as well as renal and cardiac programs.

“I am certainly intrigued and interested in what they’ve put forward, so we’re working on the basis of making significant new investment in the existing facility while at the same time preserving Station Street for some potential other health investments that we could make as a government,” Falcon said in a media scrum at the provincial legislature Thursday.

Since 2002, the provincial government and Providence Health Care, have debated a move of the centuryold hospital to a new location on Station Street.

Dianne Doyle, president and CEO of Providence Health Care, said that is no longer the case.

“That is definitely not the focus. We don’t want to be expending focus and time in two different directions” she said.

“Right now, we are looking at the aging infrastructure and looking to see how we can bring in ambulatory care in an affordable way at the Burrard site,” she said, adding that a parking lot was being considered as a possible building site.

The original plans for a move and downgrade were met with public outcry. Spencer Herbert, MLA for Vancouver-West End, says he remains cautiously optimistic about the new plan.

“This is about as firm a commitment we’ve got that we won’t be losing our hospital,” he said.

“Now we just have to hope that they actually follow with some action on what they’ve said.”

Brent Garnby, vice-chairman of the Save St. Paul’s Coalition, said the group always believed “a renewal on the current site would cost less money than a new hospital.”

NDP Health Critic Adrian Dix said it took the Liberal government long enough to listen to community concerns. “The government has been paying the property tax on the other site with taxpayer dollars . . . and things have only got worse on the original site during this delay for eight years.”

Although Doyle said it was too early to speculate how much the revitalization would cost, Minister Falcon said the aging building would require “ a very significant investment — there is no question about it.”

There is no deadline set for the completion of the revitalization plans on the current Burrard site.

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