It was almost lost in the news of 52 new hospital beds being added to Sudbury's Health Science North (HSN), but Ontario health minister Sylvia Jones also announced Tuesday that Ontario is providing a "one-time grant" of $5 million to Sudbury's hospital.
The money is being directed to support early planning for HSN’s future capital expansion project to support patient care for the next 30 years.
"This grant supports planning for the redevelopment of the existing hospital site in Sudbury to expand and enhance inpatient beds for children, adult inpatient mental health beds, acute inpatient beds, " said Jason Turnbull, the manager of communications and community engagement at the hospital.
He said the work is in line with provincial government health priorities to improve access to quality inpatient and mental health services in the region.
"Northerners know that HSN needs to grow in order to meet the needs of patients and families. That’s why the first outcome in our Strategic Plan is to begin implementation of a capital plan: creating new bed spaces, meeting future space demand in particular for mental health and addictions care, clustering programs for kids and youth and reducing where we can their need to travel outside the region for care," said Turnbull.
"This is all great news for the hospital, and we’ll look to have more to say on this over the coming months as we get further into the planning process," he added.
