New intermediate intensive care unit at HSC budgeted at $4.8 million

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This article was published 15/08/2017 (2438 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly a quarter of the $20 million the province has earmarked for renovations to make health care consolidation in Winnipeg possible will go toward a new intermediate intensive care unit at Health Sciences Centre.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is looking for someone to undertake the $4.8 million project — and “time is of the essence.” Currently, the space on the seventh floor of the general hospital wing is entirely empty, a spokeswoman said, “a blank canvass so-to-speak.”

At its most basic, construction will involve putting in mechanical, electrical and plumbing services. Then, due to the nature of the medical services the space will offer, it will require complex and costly medical equipment. To further complicate the project, construction workers will need to contend with patients being treated on the rest of the building’s floors at all hours of the day.

In short, there are a number of reasons why the IICU project is one of the more costly ones attached to consolidation, the spokeswoman said.

The project’s budget is more than $1 million above the proposed budget for the remodel of the St. Boniface Hospital emergency department, which hovers around $3.1 million but involves main-floor space construction workers can easily access from outside. It is, however, cheaper than the $5.2 million currently budgeted to consolidate acute mental health services to multiple floors at Victoria Hospital.

Of the $19.9 million in funding health minister Kelvin Goertzen announced Monday for 10 projects related to the overhaul of health care delivery in Manitoba’s capital, more than $13 million is already accounted for.

The WRHA wants the new HSC IICU to be ready for move in by Aug. 1, 2019 at the latest. When done, the unit, which offers specialized respiratory rehabilitation, will have eight beds up from the six it has in its current location in the HSC’s Ann Thomas Building. The rest of the seventh floor will house a surgical step-down unit, critical care or decant space, according to the WRHA.

Earlier this week, the WRHA’s vice president and chief nursing officer Lori Lamont stressed the moves weren’t just about increasing patient capacity, but about improving patient flow.

 

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca