County releases $3M for hospital upgrades

A master plan has been approved at NGH, and they plan to submit it to the Ontario government to build a new hospital. The process can take up to 10 years. 

Luke Edwards

Grant Haven Media

Improvements to minimally invasive surgery unit expected to be finished in June

Norfolk is dipping into a pool of money it saved for upgrades to Norfolk General Hospital.

Councillors approved a staff recommendation to release $3 million from its Legacy Fund to help pay for a project to improve the minimally invasive surgery unit at the hospital. The county has a total of $5 million set aside in the fund to be used for hospital upgrades.

“This project has been a long time coming for us as an organization and for many of our patients,” said Todd Stepanuik, president and CEO of NGH.

It’s the first of three major upgrade projects planned, along with improvements to the labour and deliveries unit, and day surgery unit.

Together, the projects will “allow us to regain our strength with regards to being state of the art,” Stepanuik said.

Back in 2016, council of the day approved a plan to set aside $500,000 a year for 10 years to build a $5 million fund within the larger Legacy Fund for hospital support.

The minimally invasive surgery unit project comes with a roughly $4 million price tag. The remaining costs will be covered by the Norfolk General Hospital Foundation and community fundraising.

“These are pretty exciting times, because it’s finally time to put this money to work for the immediate improvements of healthcare delivery for the citizens of Norfolk County,” said Brad Allender, chair of the Norfolk General Hospital Foundation board of directors and who was also co-chair of the Building a Better Hospital campaign.

The current upgrades are expected to be complete around June of next year (2026), and Stepanuik said they’re hopeful to move on to the labour and delivery unit project in 2027. That work is estimated to cost $5 million. Originally, the hospital budgets $13.6 million for the three projects, which would leave about $4.6 million for the day surgery improvements. Should costs escalate beyond that, Stepanuik said it would be the job of the foundation to make up the shortfall, something he and interim foundation executive director Sarah Muntz-Flowerday are confident could be achieved.

“I have no qualms saying we would be able to raise the appropriate funds. This community is outstanding, they always come through for us,” said Muntz-Flowerday. The foundation raised $2.9 million for the Building a Better Hospital campaign, and Allender said the foundation raises about $650,000 to $700,000 annually for capital expenditures at the hospital, with a goal of upping that to $2 million a year.

While many in the community still want a brand new hospital, Jason Smith, the hospital’s director of facilities and capital projects, said immediate improvements are needed.

“The reality is it’s going to take many years to be able to get a new hospital,” he said, adding the projects they’re undertaking now and in the near future will have a huge impact in the meantime.

However, hospital leadership still haven’t taken their eyes off the goal of getting a new hospital. Stepanuik said they just approved a master plan and are in the process of getting it submitted to the Ontario government. That gets them into the queue for what he described as a very regimented planning process, which typically lasts a decade. 

They are also in discussions with a landowner about a site for a new hospital, with a hope they can announce something more formally in the near future.