$3 million to kickstart year of planning for new civic campus
Politicians, Ottawa hospital CEO tout ‘21st century hospital’ concept

Metronews.com
By Adam Kveton
Dec. 12 2016

With little more than a week since the new Civic campus’ location was decided, the provincial government is providing $3 million to get planning started.

Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi made the announcement Monday at the current Civic campus site.
According to the Ottawa Hospital’s chief operating officer, Cameron Love, the money will kickstart a year-long process, at the end of which the size of the buildings for the new hospital site, and the services it runs, will be established.

During the announcement, the Ottawa Hospital’s CEO, Dr. Jack Kitts, talked about “a new standard of care” at the new campus, where the emphasis will not be on getting people in and out as fast as possible, but on patient safety and wellness. This would mean patients get their own rooms with their own bathrooms, which would cut down on disease, as well as emphasis on rapid diagnosis and treatment for when “minutes really do count,” he said.

Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Bob Chiarelli suggested the new campus would share some similarities to the Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital still in construction near Toronto.

But much work remains to determine the specifics.

This first phase of the planning process will include evaluating the clinical activities across the Ottawa Hospital to determine what services might be moved where, said Love.

Over the next four to six months, the hospital will also work with the city to start a consultation process around infrastructure planning, transit planning, parking requirements and more.

“It requires a whole community consultation,” he said.

Planning will also be undertaken to determine what the current Civic campus site will house. “There are lots of growth demands outside of acute care. There is definitely opportunities that this could be for,” said Love.

The cost for the new hospital has been estimated at $2 billion.