New Westminster’s Royal Columbian Hospital getting makeover
Posted January 12, 2021 2:40 pm.
Last Updated January 12, 2021 2:55 pm.
NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS 1130) – One of the oldest hospitals in Metro Vancouver is getting an upgrade. Work will soon get underway for a new acute care tower at Royal Columbian Hospital.
To help ensure hospital staff have space through this construction, crews have started digging on-site for an interim building for support services.
This is the second of three phases for the project. The new acute care tower promises more beds for intensive care, cardiac intensive care, as well as medicine and surgical patients, most of which will be private rooms. The hospital is also slated to get a new, larger ER department. There will also be four additional operating rooms, including one dedicated to cardiac patients.
There will also be more maternity beds and maternity operating rooms, plus additional parking.
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All of this work isn’t expected to be finished until early 2025.
The first phase of this project ended with the opening of the 75-bed Mental Health and Substance Use Wellness Centre last summer.
The third is expected to upgrade and expand parts of the existing Health Care Centre and Columbia Tower. It’s scheduled to get underway in 2023 and take three years to complete.
