Ontario Construction News staff writer
Southlake Regional Health Centre has received $5 million from the province to plan a major expansion project.
Despite significant population growth, the Newmarket hospital, the expansion happened almost 20 years ago. Since then, the number of patients treated in the emergency department has nearly doubled and the hospital often has the largest number of hallway beds in the Central Region of Ontario.
“It is exciting to see that Ontarians living in York Region and Simcoe County will finally benefit from a new hospital and will receive much needed updates to existing health care facilities. Southlake has not received any significant expansion since 2003 and this expansion will add an additional 100 beds to raise the total to over 600 beds which is great news for the community,” said Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP Michael Parsa.
Southlake’s plan is a phased expansion to a two-site hospital system with over 100 new inpatient beds and expand space for acute and post-acute care, critical care and emergency care, diagnostic imaging, surgery and mental health care.
In addition, the Davis Drive site will be redeveloped into an ambulatory care centre.
“Today’s historic announcement represents a major milestone in our organization’s 100-year history and will ensure that Southlake has the necessary infrastructure to continue to care for our rapidly growing communities for decades to come,” said Arden Krystal, Southlake’s president and CEO.
Ontario will work with Southlake on the early stages of the planning process, which include identifying programming, operational and space requirements and assessing how the project can meet the health care needs of patients and families in the region.
In 2021, the government announced over $6.5 million to support the expansion of Southlake’s Adult Inpatient Mental Health Unit, which will add 12 new mental health beds and support spaces to better address the demand for mental health supports and services in York Region and Simcoe County.
As part of the government’s $760 million commitment in the 2021 Budget to support over 3,100 additional hospital beds during the COVID-19 pandemic, Southlake received funding for up to 10 acute care beds, 26 transitional beds and six critical care beds.
“By building a new state-of-the-art hospital and redeveloping existing infrastructure, we are making sure that the needs of our rapidly growing region continue to be met by high-quality care,” said York-Simcoe MPP Caroline Mulroney.