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January 29th is hospital moving day!

North Bay Regional Health Centre News Release ******************** January 29th and 30th, 2011, are the days selected for moving patients to the new North Bay Regional Health Centre.


North Bay Regional Health Centre
News Release

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January 29th and 30th, 2011, are the days selected for moving patients to the new North Bay Regional Health Centre. Announced today by the Joint Executive Committee (JEC) of the project, the two-day patient move will be the culmination of a two-week relocation process moving offices, furniture and equipment from both the North Bay and District Hospital and the Northeast Mental Health Centre to the new site.

"This is a very exciting announcement," stated Murray Green, chairman of the JEC. "We are all delighted with the construction progress, but now we have an actual 'move-in' date and, with the large amount of work and planning that needs to occur, we can work backwards from that date and ensure as smooth a move as possible."

While Plenary Health will be handing over the keys to the North Bay and District Hospital and the Northeast Mental Health Centre in July, 2010, several months of work will be required to make the building patient-ready.

Dave Smits, Director of Transition Planning for the partner hospitals explains. "Once we have the keys in July 2010, we will begin to move in new equipment, make any changes that will be necessary to enhance operational efficiency and train/orient more than 2,000 staff and volunteers. We anticipate there will be plenty of opportunity to conduct community open houses and tours between September and December of 2010 before patients actually occupy the building in January, 2011."

Health Care Relocations (HCR), a company from Peterborough that specializes in moving hospitals throughout North America, has been hired by the partner hospitals to carry out the move. "HCR has already made several visits to the city and is currently developing a detailed move plan," added Smits.

As well, a group of staff have begun the celebration planning process for this exciting event in our region and will be inviting community and staff input through focus groups to be held later this Fall.

"This move is truly a once-in-a-life-time event not only for staff and patients of NBDH and NEMHC, but for the entire community," says Green. "It is hard to believe that after all the planning, proposals and hard work by the planning teams, staff, volunteers and donors our health centre is nearing completion. This will be a wonderful place to work and a terrific health care facility for the people in northeast Ontario."

Construction on the new North Bay Regional Health Centre began in March 2007 and this facility was the first Alternate Finance and Procurement (AFP) hospital project announced by the province of Ontario. The centre is a partnership, the first of its kind, between an acute hospital (NBDH) and a specialized mental health centre (NEMHC) and has been designed to provide a spectrum of health services for both physical and mental health care needs.

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