New Surrey hospital, cancer centre announced

A new hospital and cancer centre have been announced in Surrey, amid calls for action to address health care south of the Fraser River.

Premier David Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix made the announcement Tuesday morning.

The new hospital will be located on 176th Street in the Cloverdale area, near the Kwantlen Polytechnic University campus.

“The second hospital here in Surrey is not only going to transform the delivery of health care for people living in the region, it is going to change lives,” Eby said.

“People living in Surrey had been advocating for increased access to care. And I agree — greater access to health services is vital to meet the growing demand for health-care services in the community. And that’s exactly what this hospital is going to achieve.”

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However, the new hospital isn’t expected to be ready for years, with Eby saying it’s slated for completion in 2029.

“There are a number of reasons for the extended timeline. As we move along with the planning process, and develop the site and work with the contractors, their needs of being able to deliver on time, labour availability, the challenges that many projects are facing right now, have pushed us to 2029. The critical piece for us is to get this hospital open as soon as possible,” he explained. 

Eby says the “state-of-the-art, digitally equipped, and technologically advanced” hospital will mean 168 more beds, including ones for surgery and cancer care.

“It will be a fully electric hospital — one of the first in Canada — and will be the first-of-its-kind hospital providing virtually enabled health-care services,” the premier added.

Dix says the new hospital “is designed to meet the future.”

“And that reflects the extent of our commitment to ensuring that people in Surrey have access to the health-care services they need, and also in neighbouring communities around this hospital,” he said.

The total cost of the project is expected to be $2.88 billion, according to a B.C. government news release.

Susan Wannamaker, the executive vice president of the provincial health services authority responsible for BC Cancer, says the new cancer centre “will be one of the largest in B.C., and will complement the services provided in the new hospital.”

“The BC Cancer Center will include an oncology ambulatory care unit with 50 exam rooms, 50 chemotherapy treatment spaces, room for six linear accelerators to support radiation therapy — all the essentials required to support people with cancer — as well as spaces for functional imaging with PET CT scanners and a new … centre to support that functional imaging,” she explained.

“Together with our existing six cancer centers across the province, and with a number of redevelopment projects underway in Burnaby, Nanaimo, Kamloops, we are expanding cancer care across the province to provide life-saving treatment to our patients and families facing cancer.”