They put shovels in the ground Thursday to celebrate a major addition coming to Delta Hospital.
Representatives from the Delta Hospital Foundation, Fraser Health and the Toigo family were on hand for the ceremonial start of construction of the Peter C. and Elizabeth Toigo Diagnostic Services Building, a new building double the size of the hospital's current diagnostic services area and will provide space for approximately 32,000 additional patient visits per year.
“We might not have been here today. We’re going to call this the people’s hospital because the people of this community had to decide whether they wanted a hospital in 2002. They made the choice they wanted to keep the hospital and they went out and collectively fought to keep it,” said Jim Sinclair, Fraser Health’s board chair.
The foundation says Delta Hospital’s Medical Imaging and Laboratory Medicine departments have been operating at full capacity for more than six years and the need for their services has grown exponentially. Because of the space and equipment limitations, it has meant longer wait times for processing samples, test results, and in the end, patient treatment.
The new addition will consolidate these specialized areas into a single, two-storey space. Medical imaging will occupy the first level, enabling 55,700 procedures annually, up from the current 42,900. Lab medicine on the second level will enable units processed to increase from 1.2 million to 1.7 million.
Hospital executive director Teresa O’Callaghan said without a proper imagining and lab wing, a hospital can’t truly be a hospital.
Originally estimated as a $12.5-million project before jumping to $15.2 million after tenders, the foundation, which is changing its name to the Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation, fundraised $7.5 million. That total also included a sizable donation from the Delta Hospital Auxiliary. Also contributing were many community groups, businesses and individuals, including a $2.5-million donation from the Toigo family.
At Thursday’s celebration, Ron Toigo noted how the community successfully rallied in 2002 “after the government came out the dumbest decision to shut it down.”
Foundation board chair Randy Kaardal and executive director Lisa Hoglund both thanked the Toigo family as well as the many generous donations from the community.
Scheduled for occupancy by October 2019, the new diagnostic services building is the first phase of the hospital's master plan that sets a vision for the next couple of decades. A new residential care facility, which will replace Mountain View Manor, which first opened in 1980, is the second phase of the master plan. The foundation is working with Fraser Health to develop a business case for the project that will be submitted to the province for approval.
Other potential changes in the long term include a new mental health unit and additional acute beds.
