Who is the Save St. Paulís Hospital Coalition?
- Concerned citizens
- Yaletown Business Improvement Association
- West Coast Gay Menís Health Project
- West End Residents Association
- West End Citizensí Action Network
- Mole Hill Community Housing Society
- Downtown Eastside Residentsí Association
- Hospital Employees Union ñ St. Paulís Local
- Ambulance Paramedics of BC ñ CUPE Local #873
- Vancouver & District Labour Council
- St. Paulís Anglican Church
- St. Johnís United Church
- St. Andrewís Wesley United Church
- Lord Roberts Elementary School PAC
- Lord Roberts Annex Elementary School PAC
What is the issue?
- Providence Health Care (PHC) owns and operates St. Paulís Hospital (SPH)
- PHC is proposing an updating of hospital services, referred to as the ìLegacy Projectî
- Legacy Project includes 2 options re: SPH:
- Option 1: Construction and redevelopment of the current site (estimated 15 years)
- Option 2: Build new facility on 18.5 acres purchased in north False Creek flats north area, a.k.a. the Trillium site (estimated 5-7 years)
What are the Coalitionís objectives?
- To have open public consultation on the PHC business case before it is sent to the provincial government
- To maintain a major not-for-profit health care facility on the current Burrard site
What are the concerns around moving SPH out of the downtown core? The Coalition feels that removal of SPH will detrimentally affect access to hospital services by residents, workers and visitors of the downtown peninsula.
- SPH is currently centrally located in most densely populated region in BC and provides emergency, acute and out-patient care to individuals from around the province
- A substantial portion of the patients accessing SPH and neighbouring medical offices live in the West End and Downtown centre.
- Residents of downtown peninsula will incur increased travel time and costs to access hospital services
- The removal of SPH from downtown could have a negative impact on morbidity rates of emergency patients due to increased travel time.
- In the event of a major earthquake/flood in the region, access to hospital services located in False Creek flats from downtown could be very difficult. A significant amount of land in the False Creek flats is landfill which would become unstable during a seismic event. The land is also low-lying and at risk of flooding in the event of a tsunami.
Additionally, SPH is a major economic generator for the businesses in surrounding neighbourhoods.
- Physicians and other medical service providers have offices located within close proximity to SPH
- SPH is a critical economic generator for businesses in the area, particularly along Davie and Burrard Streets.
- Many SPH employees reside in the downtown area.
The Coalition is concerned about the soft costs of moving SPH, including social costing and costs to replicate transportation infrastructure already in place at the current Burrard Street site. What are the Coalitionís next steps?
- Continue petition/letter writing campaign
- Investigate and represent concerns of business and residents from areas surrounding SPH