Nipissing MPP Monique Smith toured the new hospital site Friday. Photos provided.
Nipissing MPP Monique Smith News Release
**************************
The Honourable Monique Smith, Minister of Tourism and Nipissing MPP, joined North Bay General Hospital and Northeast Mental Health Centre officials today for a construction update tour of the North Bay Regional Health Centre.
The North Bay Regional Health Centre project began in March 2007 and is on time and on budget to open its doors to patients in fall 2010. The new health centre will be over 720,000 square feet with a state-of-the-art acute care hospital and a modern, rehabilitation-focused mental health facility. It will be significantly larger and have the capacity to serve a greater number of patients. “I’m very excited to see the progress we have made on the new North Bay Regional Health Centre project. It is such an important project for our community both economically and for its vital role in providing modern health care and treatment to the residents of our entire region,” said Nipissing MPP, Monique Smith. “This project continues to stimulate the local economy by supporting about 3,000 project-related jobs and, at the end of the project, will have contributed approximately $230 million dollars to the regional and Ontario economies. I look forward to joining with the community in celebrating the official opening of our new hospital in 2010.”
Already in the second winter of construction, the project is over 65 per cent complete. The exterior shell is finished and much of the construction has moved indoors. Mechanical and electrical installations are well under way and finishes are happening in a number of areas. Services at the new General hospital will include:
• A larger emergency department with 32 treatment beds
• A consolidated ambulatory care centre
• Capacity for up to 275 acute care, complex continuing care, rehabilitation and acute mental health beds.
The new Northeast Mental Health Centre, which will be linked to the general hospital, will have capacity for up to 113 specialized mental health beds and serve all of northeast Ontario.
“I would like to thank both hospital’s staff, volunteers, fundraisers and the community for their generous donations and support for this project,” said Murray Green, Chairman of the
Joint Executive Finance and Construction Committee. “We are looking forward to this project being completed and our one-site health centre being available for all members of our community and throughout the region.”
“We continue to make good progress thanks to the hard work of PCL and their trades, the design team and the North Bay Regional Health Centre Project team. We will soon shift our focus on building commissioning and start-up activities,” said Mike Marasco, CEO of Plenary Health, the consortia building and maintaining the new facility.
Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care are working with the North Bay General Hospital and the Northeast Mental Health Centre to manage the construction of the North Bay Regional Health Centre, which will remain publicly owned, publicly controlled and publicly accountable. Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to managing some of the province's larger and more complex infrastructure renewal projects -- ensuring they are built on time and on budget.
Visit www.infrastructureontario.ca; www.nbgh.on.ca ; and www.nemhc.on.ca for more information.
