Halfway mark approaches for hospital
Nearly $8 million spent on Northern labour, $3 million in Northern goods, $14 million on Northern services for Stanton construction, according to hospital renewal project
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The lack of drywall may make it look bare but the new Stanton hospital is now almost 50 per cent complete.
The view from the new Stanton Territorial Hospital was a popular feature during the tour on Monday afternoon. Here, senior superintendent Rudy Gorse holds up a plastic cover to show off the view. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo |
Media, MLAs and special guests toured the building on Monday afternoon.
Led by Sheryl Courtoreille, assistant director with Stanton Clinic Services, the group visited many of the new hospital features such as a larger emergency department, larger single-occupancy rooms for patients and a cafeteria designed with the Northern indigenous population in mind.
Senior superintendent Rudy Gorse explained construction has started on the in-wall roughing, which includes adding plumbing and electrical to the structure as well as installing boxes for outlets, switches and lighting.
"Once we get that completed and inspected and passed then we can start boarding," he said.
The $350-million project is the largest in Yellowknife's history. Its price tag includes $300 million for construction and an additional $50 million for project management.
As of January, nearly $8 million has been spent on Northern labour, $3 million in Northern goods and $14 million on Northern services, according to the Stanton Renewal Project Group.
The Stanton Hospital Renewal project came to fruition with a surprise announcement in October 2015 that instead of renovating the old hospital as was previously planned, an entirely new structure would be built next to it.
As a public-private partnership, or P3, the project involves a long-term, performance-based contract between the territorial government and Boreal Health Partnership. The project term includes three years for construction plus a 30-year maintenance period.
According to the Stanton Renewal Project, under the terms of the P3 agreement, the project will be completed on time and on budget. If not, the company is responsible for absorbing any cost or time overruns.
The new hospital will include more space for diagnostic imaging; enhanced medical technology to improve quality of care and clinical efficacy; more space for ambulatory care, such as specialist clinics; medical day care and dialysis; and more space for support services such as sterile reprocessing and more inpatients beds.
The new hospital is 280,000 square feet, which is twice the size of the existing hospital. Pellet boilers will heat 100 per cent of the building.
Present during the tour were Minister of Infrastructure Wally Schumann, Minister of Health and Social Services Glen Abernethy, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment Alfred Moses, Frame Lake MLA Kevin O'Reilly, Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green, Yellownknife North MLA Cory Vanthuyne and Hay River North MLA RJ Simpson.
Vanthuyne said he is impressed with the design and thought put into serving the needs of patients and practitioners.
"It gives you an indication of why the costs were so expensive to do a major renovation to the existing building," he said. "It's not surprising to me that the winning bid for this project was a new building rather than two of them that put in for renovations at a higher cost than this."
Courtoreille said the new hospital has many added benefits, such as single-occupancy rooms.
"Some of these people come from a long way," she said. "So to have that family member or escort stay with them is paramount."
The hospital is scheduled to be completed by December 2018 and will be open to serve patients in 2019.
