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A4 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, July 4, 2001 Hospital eyes northern expansion as OTMH nears full capacity By Howard Mozel OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF While the recent demolition of the for mer Oakville Trafalgar High School (OTHS) site is an obvious demonstration of imminent improvements to OakvilleTrafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH), even greater changes loom in the facility's future. Much attention has been focused on the 128-bed long-term care centre set to open next year on the old OTHS land, but, according to Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) President and CEO John Oliver, several additional projects - from continu ing care and rehabilitation to parking - are also on the boards. By 2016 (2020 at the latest), however, the needs of the community will have out grown the total 14-acre location, so an entirely new site will have to be found. In fact, the search is now on for a 30-50-acre site somewhere in north Oakville for a full-service, 500-bed hospital to replace the current 333-bed facility that, by 2020, will be much too small and 70 years old. The last major renovation will have been completed 25 years prior. "We want to avoid a crisis situation so we're looking for land now," says Oliver. "This site will be exhausted." Initially, the new facility will be an ambulatory care centre designed to accommodate some of the needs of new growth areas to 2008. The site could then be expanded to the full 500-bed facility. In the shorter term, Oliver said the hospital's fifth floor will be opened up once Extendicare's lease for long-term care expires this December. Next (hope fully in two years) the hospital's third floor - currently rehabilitation and com plex continuing care - will be freed up for much-needed additional acute care beds once a 150-bed centre for the same pur poses opens on the old OTHS site. HHS is currently working on the necessary approvals. "That's how we can basically survive into the immediate future," he said. This far-sighted approach is the basis of HHS' Strategic Plan for OTMH and Milton District Hospital (MDH) that addresses a host of challenges integral to the future delivery of outstanding health care. They include everything from increasing demand on hospital services arising from projected growth to growing human resource shortages. The Strategic Plan was also prompted by the merger of OTMH and MDH and the implementation of directives from the Health Services Restructuring Commission. One key factor, which the Plan takes into consideration, is> population growth and aging in OTMH's catchment area between now and 2016. For example, Oakville is expected to swell by 71,000 residents, or 49%, mainly north of the existing urban area. Burlington is expect ed to jump by 28,000, largely north and east of its existing urban area. Oliver says Oakville and Milton's growth rate matches that of York Region's - the highest in Canada. In addition, Halton-Peel has the fastest-growing pop ulation of individuals over age 65 in Ontario. According to Oliver, those 60plus present an "incredible demand" and consume approximately two-thirds of the hospital's resources. Long before 2016 - by 2003/04 in fact if immediate expansion does not occur OTMH will have reached its maximum bed capacity. The OTMH site is plainly constrained and there exists little space that can be used for further building even if local by-laws allowed this. Opportunities for parking expansion are limited and area streets can't handle more traffic. "What you have is a huge project pushing right down to the edges," said Oliver. There is also a concern about the accessibility of the existing site to those living in Oakville's northern growth areas. Unlike OTHS, MDH - which sits on 30 acres (25 of which are still available) is well-positioned for the future despite Milton's projected population growth of 44,000 people between now and 2016. With development of the high school property, the hospital will lose valuable surface parking. Plans are in the works for a multi-level garage to be "tucked in tight" against OTMH's existing southeast cor ner, says Oliver. Pains will be taken, he adds, to ensure this looks less like a park ing facility and more like a building to lessen its visual impact from the street. "We're a big business in the middle of a suburban neighbourhood but we have a history of being a good neighbour," said Oliver. Hospital's growth strains neighbourhood relations B y A n g e l a B la c k b u r n OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Residents surrounding Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) came away from Town Hall recently real izing that they really have little control over what OTMH does with its property. The hospital wanted a two-year deal so it could shuffle parking around on the former Oakville-Trafalgar High School (OTHS) site to facilitate construction there of a 128-bed long term care facility. The hospital also wants to build a new parking garage on the Allan Street side of its own site to alleviate a parking short age. And while Council approved the OTMH requests it also called for the hos pital to set up a committee to liaise with the neighbourhood -- to calm what have become rough waters. Residents see the latest plans as a fur ther intrusion on their privacy and quali ty of life thanks to added traffic and a rapidly expanding patient area. Not only is a long-term care facility being built and a new, five-storey parking garage planned, but the hospital also hopes to build a 150-bed, continuing care & rehabilitation facility on the OTHS site. If all are approved, the two new build ings would add 278 beds onto the OTHS site and free up the hospital's 333 beds as acute care beds. That would bring the hospital's total bed tally to 611. However, area residents and the Trafalgar-Chartwell Residents' Association (TCRA) feel betrayed by the hospital plans. "It (is) evident that a communications rift has developed between the neigh bourhood and the hospital," said Ward 1 Councillor Kevin Flynn, who asked that council formalize a committee to liaise hospital and residents. Nick Hutchins, of MacDonald Road, suggested that the "hospital has been less than forthcoming with residents" and said, "This sort of behavior does not build community confidence. Destroying a neighbourhood to put in a large hospital is not the way to go." Photo by Peter C. McCusker U K R A IN IA N C E L E B R A T I O N : Yuri Chumak, M ariana Statysyshyn and Serhiy Androschuk sing "My Testament" by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko on Sunday during the 50th anniversary celebra tion of the unveiling of the monument at 1363 Dundas St. W. The monu ment was erected in 1951 to mark the 60th anniversary of the mass Ukrainian immigration to Canada. Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet and artist, who was conscripted into the Russian military and banned from writing or drawing by Czar Nicholas I of Russian. H a tto n S e n io r s ' D ir e c to r y a v a ila b le Copies are now available in the follow ing locations throughout Halton: senior cit izens' centres, seniors' apartment buildings, long-term care facilities, libraries, hospi tals, medical and health service providers, police and fire departments, municipal, provincial and federal government offices representing the region of Halton. 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