The business plan for the new St. Paul’s Hospital has been approved. Credit: flickr/Province of BC

The $1.9 billion new St. Paul’s Hospital is the largest hospital redevelopment project in British Columbian history.

St. Paul’s Hospital and its new site in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats neighbourhood are owned and operated by Providence Health Authority, which is working alongside the BC Ministry of Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, the City of Vancouver, and other partners to realize the project. Such collaboration has been necessary to ensure that policy and regulatory issues are adequately addressed.

Rezoning the new site was a multi-step process that moved from public engagement to a policy statement, review of other policies, and finally to the rezoning application.

The social impact assessment undertaken during the public engagement phase addressed a number of community concerns, including the fear of gentrification on the area, transit access, and the gap in services left at the hospital’s current site on Burrard Street in the Downtown core.

The City of Vancouver approved the hospital’s rezoning application in 2019; a design and construction RFP is currently in process and ground breaking is expected to occur in late 2020. The new hospital is expected to open in 2026.

“Even after the rezoning application was approved,” write John McLachlan and Nicole K. Wong, “there still remain some concerns with respect to the new hospital.” Such concerns centre on social equity and the capacity of the False Creek Flats neighbourhood to provide accommodation for families of patients. “Through consultation with communities and partner organizations, it appears that Providence has tried to mitigate any negative impacts the location move may have on residents of Vancouver,” write Mclachlan and Wong. “It remains uncertain how effective these plans will be.”

Download Spring 2020

For more policy and regulatory issues, read the authors’ “The New St. Paul’s Hospital: A Snapshot of Policy and Regulatory Issues” in the Spring 2020 edition of Input. Download Spring 2020

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