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Citing concerns about access, costs and the timeline, the board of governors of The Ottawa Hospital said no to Tunney’s Pasture as the site of a new Civic hospital.
The board’s decision throws another curveball into the hospital selection process, which is already both politicized and increasingly controversial. Last Thursday, the National Capital Commission recommended 50 acres of Tunney’s Pasture be offered to the hospital as the future site of a $2 billion Civic hospital replacement. The hospital’s first choice was the Central Experimental Farm.
The hospital’s board, which met Monday to discuss the issue, released a statement Tuesday saying it could not “in good faith support Tunney’s Pasture as the future location for the Civic Campus.”
Among its concerns:
Access to the site: “Given that The Ottawa Hospital has over a million patient visits annually, we cannot impose a greater access burden on our patients and their families who arrive at our hospital by car.”
Costs: “The costs of demolishing buildings, displacing public servants and preparing the land at Tunney’s Pasture are significant. We cannot impose this financial burden on our fundraising community that has supported us for decades, or ask taxpayers to step into their place. We do not serve our patients’ best interests by choosing an option that inflates the cost of a new hospital at a time when health-care dollars are so scarce.”
Timelines: “We cannot support an option that would jeopardize completing a new Civic Campus in the next 10 years. There are other options that enable the hospital and community to meet this 10-year timeline. Time is of the essence, given the aging facility and its impact on the hospital’s ability to deliver 21st-century health care. “
The hospital has said it wants a new Civic open by 2026. The NCC had talked about a hospital being built in 15-20 years.
The hospital board said its three concerns about the site, taken together, “pose a risk we cannot pass on to our patients and the community at large.”
It left the door open to continuing discussions with the NCC. It is not clear what comes next.
Until now, hospital officials had said little about the choice of Tunney’s Pasture for a new Civic hospital. Behind the scenes, sources said hospital officials were reeling from the decision.
The Ottawa Hospital released a terse statement Thursday saying Tunney’s was not among its top choices in reviews done in 2008 or 2016.
“In our 2016 report, we did raise concerns regarding access delays due to traffic volume heading north on Parkdale Avenue from the Queensway. We also raised concerns about the cost and timelines for demolishing existing facilities and relocating federal government departments.”
And the hospital said it understood the federal government had other plans for the massive government complex “that did not include a hospital. We understand today that there have been recent changes to the vision for Tunney’s Pasture that could enable a hospital to be located there.”
The hospital said it needed to meet with federal, provincial and municipal officials to plan a way forward and would not comment until that review was complete.
The decision by the NCC board — which has yet to go to Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly for approval — was far from unanimous. Four board members who live in Ottawa either abstained or voted against the motion. One other member abstained, saying he didn’t feel he knew enough about the issue to vote on it.
The decision was greeted with relief by supporters of the Central Experimental Farm, who have fought to keep a new hospital from being built on the farm.
The hospital’s preferred site was on 60 acres of the Central Experimental Farm along Carling Avenue at its western edge. In 2014, then-cabinet minister John Baird announced the Conservative government would transfer the land so that a hospital could be built there.
查看原文...
The board’s decision throws another curveball into the hospital selection process, which is already both politicized and increasingly controversial. Last Thursday, the National Capital Commission recommended 50 acres of Tunney’s Pasture be offered to the hospital as the future site of a $2 billion Civic hospital replacement. The hospital’s first choice was the Central Experimental Farm.
The hospital’s board, which met Monday to discuss the issue, released a statement Tuesday saying it could not “in good faith support Tunney’s Pasture as the future location for the Civic Campus.”
Among its concerns:
Access to the site: “Given that The Ottawa Hospital has over a million patient visits annually, we cannot impose a greater access burden on our patients and their families who arrive at our hospital by car.”
Costs: “The costs of demolishing buildings, displacing public servants and preparing the land at Tunney’s Pasture are significant. We cannot impose this financial burden on our fundraising community that has supported us for decades, or ask taxpayers to step into their place. We do not serve our patients’ best interests by choosing an option that inflates the cost of a new hospital at a time when health-care dollars are so scarce.”
Timelines: “We cannot support an option that would jeopardize completing a new Civic Campus in the next 10 years. There are other options that enable the hospital and community to meet this 10-year timeline. Time is of the essence, given the aging facility and its impact on the hospital’s ability to deliver 21st-century health care. “
The hospital has said it wants a new Civic open by 2026. The NCC had talked about a hospital being built in 15-20 years.
The hospital board said its three concerns about the site, taken together, “pose a risk we cannot pass on to our patients and the community at large.”
It left the door open to continuing discussions with the NCC. It is not clear what comes next.
Until now, hospital officials had said little about the choice of Tunney’s Pasture for a new Civic hospital. Behind the scenes, sources said hospital officials were reeling from the decision.
The Ottawa Hospital released a terse statement Thursday saying Tunney’s was not among its top choices in reviews done in 2008 or 2016.
“In our 2016 report, we did raise concerns regarding access delays due to traffic volume heading north on Parkdale Avenue from the Queensway. We also raised concerns about the cost and timelines for demolishing existing facilities and relocating federal government departments.”
And the hospital said it understood the federal government had other plans for the massive government complex “that did not include a hospital. We understand today that there have been recent changes to the vision for Tunney’s Pasture that could enable a hospital to be located there.”
The hospital said it needed to meet with federal, provincial and municipal officials to plan a way forward and would not comment until that review was complete.
The decision by the NCC board — which has yet to go to Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly for approval — was far from unanimous. Four board members who live in Ottawa either abstained or voted against the motion. One other member abstained, saying he didn’t feel he knew enough about the issue to vote on it.
The decision was greeted with relief by supporters of the Central Experimental Farm, who have fought to keep a new hospital from being built on the farm.
The hospital’s preferred site was on 60 acres of the Central Experimental Farm along Carling Avenue at its western edge. In 2014, then-cabinet minister John Baird announced the Conservative government would transfer the land so that a hospital could be built there.
查看原文...
