BY CRAIG GILBERT
Sudbury Regional Hospital will be calling for tenders for the final phase soon with construction expected to begin next year.
And this time around, there won?t be any cost overruns, say Sudbury Regional Hospital CEO Vickie Kaminski and board chair Tom Querney.
They spoke to city council last week following their meeting with the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care George Smitherman.
At that meeting, Smitherman acknowledged the SRH?s role as a regional referral centre, a teaching hospital and a research facility.
By the time the SRH is completed, a decade will have passed since the city?s hospital restructuring process began in 1997.
Construction began in 1998 and was halted in 2001 after the project?s cost ballooned to $366 million, or three times the original amount budgeted.
The first mistake the hospital made during construction last time around was to accept tenders for construction before the conceptual drawings of the finished building were completed, Kaminski said.
That resulted in additional costs when changes to the plans were made.
The cost was driven up by delays in ministry approvals for work to be done, as well as inaccurate cost estimates, and jumps in equipment and supply prices.
This time around, a competitive tendering process will ensure the SRH gets the best bang for its contractor buck.
This time ?we have a firm number for the total price and we have a firm commitment from the province that we?ll be able to afford that,? Kaminski said.
Querney reaffirmed the community will not be asked to raise any more money for the construction project.
New benchmarking data released by the Ministry of Health last month indicated the hospital has improved its performance by 25 per cent in just three years, Kaminski told council. ?This means that for the first time ever, the Sudbury Regional Hospital is performing above the expected efficiency rate for hospitals in Ontario.?
The hospital finished fiscal 2003 with a balanced budget including over $7 million in savings.
Those savings stem from an improved governance model and management practices and a multi-year renewal plan.
They haven?t included layoffs yet.
The new hospital will have 430 beds, compared to the system?s current 535.
The SRH employs about 3,000 people and contributes $305 million to the local economy each year, according to Kaminski.
