What do you think of this plan? Comment on our Facebook page. === A massive footprint and a vacant plot of land near Main Street and Terminal Avenue will make St. Paul’s Hospital the envy of Canada and chart a course for the future design of health care delivery, board chairs for Providence and Vancouver Coastal told The Vancouver Sun Monday. Unlike most hospital redevelopments, which involve renovation or expansion on limited land mass, the new St. Paul’s will move to the False Creek flats where there is space enough to build a unique “campus of care” offering a variety of services on one site. The hospital itself will be larger and the campus will provide residential care for the frail elderly, a 24-7 integrated care centre staffed by family doctors to divert patients away from emergency departments, mental health and addiction services and research facilities, said Geoff Plant, chair of the Providence Health Care board and Kip Woodward, chair of Vancouver Coastal Health board. West End residents will lose a hospital in their own backyard, and possibly the 1912 iconic brick building fronting Burrard Street; however, Plant said, “It’s my view that health care has to trump nostalgia all the time,” later adding that St. Paul’s is beyond help since it’s a “pile of bricks that could fall down in an earthquake.” Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP MLA for Vancouver-West End, said the plan is like his worst dream. “In earlier drafts, there was going to be an emergency room of some sort on the St. Paul’s location. Now they are talking about full-scale selling of all the lands for condominiums or some sort of other development.” Chandra Herbert said the new hospital will be too far from the downtown core in an event causing mass injuries. “I’m not against health care investment elsewhere, I just think we need emergency services in downtown Vancouver.” Woodward responded to Herbert’s complaints, saying: “There are rural communities where people would love to be within five hours of a hospital. The new hospital is only three kilometres away (from the current site), three to five minutes farther away.” Only six per cent of those who use hospitals live within three kilometres of such medical facilities, noted Dianne Doyle, CEO of Providence (which operates St. Paul’s) and that proportion happens to be Vancouver’s West End residents. “So they are fortunate from that point of view,” she said, noting that ambulance drivers have told her they will find it far easier to get to the new site near Main and Terminal. Dr. Julio Montaner, the internally renowned director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS at St. Paul’s, said he knows downtown residents are “emotionally attached” to the hospital and will not want to see it move anywhere, but “we are moving a few blocks away, it’s not like we’re moving to another continent.” And with the construction not expected to be completed for at least seven years, Montaner said he expects as he ages, he’ll one day be a patient in the hospital.

“I will want a private room for myself, my family and my colleagues,” he said, half-joking, referring to the fact that new hospitals are largely built with single rooms. As it is now, less than half the rooms at St. Paul’s are single occupancy and hospital-acquired infections are more likely to spread when patients share rooms. “Would you rather have a crumbling hospital or a state-of-the-art facility?” he asked rhetorically during a meeting with The Vancouver Sun editorial board. Montaner said one of the most exciting features of the hospital move is that the space will allow St. Paul’s clinicians and researchers to be on the same campus. Now, Montaner’s clinical and research associates lease out 40,000 square feet away from the St. Paul’s site. “It’s a miracle we’ve been able to do what we’ve done having to rent so much space. St. Paul’s is not just old, there’s no space.” The hospital leases a total of 100,000 square feet in commercial buildings because it is too cramped to accommodate everyone. === VIEW MORE PHOTOS HERE, or if you're using a mobile app, tap the story image and swipe. === Highrise condominiums will likely replace St. Paul’s Hospital after the site is sold to private developers. Plant said it’s possible St. Paul’s will retain ownership of the land and strike long-term lease arrangements like what the University of B.C. has done. Bob Lee, the real estate magnate and former UBC chancellor who started the UBC Property Trust decades ago, said there’s a 50-50 chance the same approach will work for St. Paul’s. St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation will be seeking at least $125 million from donors for the new hospital campus. Lee said a new hospital on the Station Avenue site makes the most sense from a philanthropy perspective since wealthy donors are far more receptive to the idea of giving to a new hospital rather than continually propping up the old one. “A lot of my friends will contribute to new hospital; they don’t believe a renovation will work,” Lee said. Neil MacConnell, the project lead, echoed Lee’s comments: “Some of the major donors who had been contacted were (reluctant) about supplying their monies to a project of renovation at the St. Paul’s site, which in their minds did not give an opportunity for a world-class solution. “But they seemed to be much more receptive to providing their support to a brand new state-of-the-art future-oriented hospital.” The fact that the site is so large means that Providence may be able to consolidate services with Mount Saint Joseph Hospital (MSJ). It is unclear if that means that East Vancouver hospital would close and merge. But Doyle said all options are on the table for discussion. MacConnell said conversations will take place immediately over whether over MSJ should be “leveraged” to help offset the capital costs of the new St. Paul’s campus, which will consist of three or four buildings. The government has committed to contributing $500 million for the St. Paul’s rebuild, so another $500 million — at least — will have to be found for the construction, which could cost up to $1.2 billion. The St. Paul’s site is likely to sell to private condo developers for over $400 million; it is now assessed at nearly $370 million.