Promised funding in Thursday’s provincial budget is putting the gears in motion for the second phase of redevelopment of the Wallaceburg site of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
CKHA CEO Lori Marshall says a building committee will be put together to work with the architect and design planners to draft a proposal for the stage 2 plans to submit to the government in the fall.
“The initial submission in 2019 was put in at $25-million,” Marshall says. “Once there’s a little bit more detail and all we know about what’s happened to construction costs over the last couple of years, we need to have that re-costed and submitted, and then we’ll look forward to an approval after that.”
The building committee will be comprised of members of the CKHA and CKHA Foundation boards, community members from Wallaceburg and Walpole Island First Nation, and hospital staff.
Among the planned upgrades to the new wing of the hospital is moving the emergency department and medical beds, new diagnostic imaging, new laboratory, and rehabilitation area.
“What it also allows us to do is to use the existing space that is currently our emergency department and medical beds to further expand ambulatory care services,” Marshall says. “This really is about not only a renewal with respect to new facilities that will allow us to transform how we deliver care, it’s also going to give us the opportunity to expand our services in outpatient and ambulatory care, which is where we know the growth is going to be in the future.”
MPP and Minister of Labour Monte McNaughton was in Wallaceburg Friday morning for his first post-budget announcement, part of an overall $40-billion plan to build and improve 50 hospitals across the province.
When asked about a timeline for breaking ground, McNaughton says they’d like get the project done as soon as possible, but the budget will be put to Ontario voters in the June 2nd election, and if the Conservatives are successful in retaining power, they plan to move forward on the next steps as quickly as possible.
Also part of Friday morning’s announcement was an additional $5.6 million in operational costs for CKHA. Marshall says those funds will be allocated to things such as inflationary costs, surgical renewal, quality-based procedures, and additional funding for 13 inpatient beds that were added in 2021.
