Ontario Construction News staff writer
Barrie’s hospital – Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre – has run out of space and the
search is on for a new location south of the city.
RVH CEO Janis Skot presented a vision for the second campus to Barrie City Council
last week. According to the report, construction of the combined RVH projects is expected to cost at least $2.5 billion. By 2026, RVH officials plan to add 91 beds at the north campus and five years later the hospital would have a total of 626 beds, increasing to 943 by 2040.
“RVH today is big, it’s complex, it’ss very busy and it’ss a regional health centre logging over 576,000 patient visits every day,” Skot said. “That’s 1,500 people a day receiving care at RVH.”
The area’s population is forecast to reach 268,000 in Barrie by 2041, 75,000 in the Innisfil area and 28,000 in Springwater Township, according to numbers included in Skot’s presentation.
A new, two-campus model is being presented as the best option for an expansion, along with an expansion of the RVH building on Georgian Drive where a nine-
storey tower would add more than 800,000 square feet.
“It’s a plan for the near future and for decades to come,” the RVH officials said.
Five sites are under review: Highway 400 corridor; south-Barrie/north-Stroud; south-Stroud/Yonge Street corridor, south-Alcona, and along the 6th Line of Innisfil at Yonge Street.
Officials are anticipating a south-campus health hub will open in about 10 years and
post-acute inpatient beds would be added five years late, with a full hospital operating in about 20 years. A pre-capital submission is at the province.