State-of-the-art facility at HSC was planned to be open in 2014, however, there were some delays.
More than 4 years have passed since then, and, finally, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority received the keys to the building. The new facility is at 665 William Ave.
Officially the building will be open at the end of the year, and then it will be able to accommodate many women and babies.
The need for a new women's hospital was announced in 2007. Its opening was scheduled for 2014, then it was postponed for 2016, and at last in 2019 its doors will be open. $233M was spent for the project.
Senior WRHA administrators think that they need at least 8-9 months to prepare the new women’s hospital for work.
"We've got the right team, the right processes and the right plan in place to make sure we can openly safely on the first of December," said Ronan Seagrave, the interim chief operating officer at Health Sciences Centre.
"What's happened here is that yesterday HSC took possession of the building from the contractor (construction firm EllisDon), so all of the costs related to the budget for that period up until yesterday are the responsibility of the contractor," Seagrave added.
As it became known, the new hospital will be the largest project in Manitoba. It will have about 60 beds for newborns and separate areas for families. New modern technologies will move patient care to a new level.
"Currently we use a paper chart. We'll be starting to train the staff very soon on electronic charting. We hope to launch that in June, and then we will be the first site in Manitoba that will integrate the devices that monitor the patient with the electronic chart," said Warren, the director at the Children's Hospital.
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