Cloverdale is getting a hospital.
Premier John Horgan and Health Minister Adrian Dix were in Cloverdale at the Museum of Surrey Dec. 9 to announce the “brand new hospital” will be built near the Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
“It’s going to be a very fast-paced process,” Horgan said. “It’s a happy day.”
New Surrey hospital to be built next to Cloverdale's KPU. pic.twitter.com/iRKLIXIIpx
— Cloverdale Reporter (@CloverdaleNews) December 9, 2019
Horgan said his government will work on a business plan, which he estimates will take 12 months. Then they will open a bidding process and construction will begin after that.
“I think we’ll be through the business plan about this time next year in 2020 and then we’ll be going to tender,” Horgan said. He thinks the first shovels could break ground by the end of 2021.
Horgan told the Cloverdale Reporter the new hospital won’t be as big the new St. Paul’s hospital. The cost for that hospital, set to open in 2026, will be $1.9 billion.
“It’s a different project,” added Dix, “and they’re building off [the needs of] Surrey Memorial. We have to look at our planning needs and respond to it that way.”
Dix told the Cloverdale Reporter part of the problem they’re going to have to figure out is how to build a hospital that addresses the needs of residents, but also complements other hospitals in the area.
“(Surrey Memorial) is full and everyone is stuck in the emergency room when they’re admitted—they can’t go into the wards—so we’re trying to alleviate some of that.” He also said the Cloverdale hospital will have more beds for elective surgeries.
“It’s super-exciting for Cloverdale,” Dix said, “because you’re talking about a huge number of employees working here. You also have to think about how they’re going to get here, where they will live, how they’re going to deal with that.”
Councillor Doug Elford said he thinks big changes are coming.
“(Cloverdale’s) going to have doctors’ offices, support services, everything down here is going to change,” he told the Cloverdale Reporter.
Elford said traffic routes, including Highway 10, around the area may be changing too.
“It’s all going to be based on the services around the hospital. Doctors will want to be close. It’s going to change the face of Cloverdale completely.”
Mayor Doug McCallum thanks NDP for bringing hospital to Cloverdale. pic.twitter.com/RnaAHEemGI
— Cloverdale Reporter (@CloverdaleNews) December 9, 2019
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum told the Cloverdale Reporter the announcement was great news for the residents of Surrey.
“It’s been long overdue,” he said. “It’s a great new future for Coverdale, Surrey, and the people of B.C.”
He added the choice of Cloverdale is significant because it is well-positioned in an area of need, between both Langley Memorial Hospital and Peace Arch, and southeast of Surrey Memorial.
“I’m excited,” McCallum added. “We need a new hospital with the growth that we’re absorbing right now. I congratulate the NDP for bringing this forth and setting a timeline for when it’s going to be built.”
McCallum said, on behalf of the City of Surrey, he’s committed to fast tracking permits for the project because of its importance. He also plans to sit down with Translink to push hard for better transportation to and from Cloverdale.
In terms of the traffic congestion that a new hospital will bring, he said the City is going to embrace more technology to solve potential gridlock woes.
“We’re going to be bringing some initiatives ahead on how to improve traffic across the city.”
He said the City has installed more than 100 intersection cameras throughout Surrey.
“We can monitor them from City Hall and when we see gridlock on some of our roads, we can change the lighting sequence to (alleviate) that gridlock.
“We’re going to be using a lot of the new technology on our roads. That’s part of our “smart city” initiative that we’re going to do next year.”
The new hospital will have an emergency department, inpatient beds, operating rooms, and laboratory, diagnostic and outpatient services.
Concept plan approval only. No construction date set. pic.twitter.com/d1wolOhX0i
— Cloverdale Reporter (@CloverdaleNews) December 9, 2019
Dix said it represents a “key commitment to help meet the health-care needs of Surrey’s rapidly growing community.”
Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, said Surrey’s new hospital “allows us to re-envision how health services can meet the demands of this fast-growing and diverse community with an expansion of services and the incorporation of virtual health-care services that go beyond the walls of the hospital.”
Surrey is currently served by Surrey Memorial Hospital, opened in 1959, Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock, opened in 1954, and the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre which was opened in Green Timbers in 2011.
Every month, 1,000 new people call Surrey home, he said.
The new hospital will be located beside the university, at 5500-180th Street.
editor@cloverdalereporter.com
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