St. Gabriel's construction delay makes CCAC's job 'difficult'

Every day completion of the St. Gabriel's Villa long-term care facility is delayed, the harder it will be to place the 126 patients living in the transitional care unit at the hospital's Memorial site in long-term care facilities before March 31, according to the CEO of the North East Community Care Access Centre (CCAC).

“If (the delay) is two weeks, then we will adapt our plan,” Richard Joly told Northern Life during an interview last week. “If it's six weeks, that's another story. We're still awaiting the go-ahead and the actual firm dates. The longer we go, the more difficult it's going to be.”

North East CCAC spokesperson Kim Morris confirmed that as of Feb. 9, St. Joseph's Health Centre has not provided a date for when construction on St. Gabriel's Villa will be complete.

The current Memorial residents were to be moved into long-term care facilities by the North East CCAC by March 31. After that, Memorial is to be used as a “surge unit” for up to 75 patients awaiting home care or rehabilitation after receiving acute hospital care.

St. Joseph's Health Centre, which owns St. Gabriel's Villa, put out a statement Feb. 3 which said Tribury Construction, the contractor working on the new nursing home, “has notified us that it is unable to meet its deadline.”

The St. Gabriel's Villa building was originally supposed to be completed at the end of January, and the opening date was subsequently pushed back to Feb. 14 because of construction delays. A new opening date has not yet been provided by St. Joseph's Health Centre.

The Feb. 3 statement from the organization said it is awaiting “Tribury Construction's notification of its revised opening date.”

Northern Life was informed Feb. 9 that St. Joseph's Health Centre CEO Jo-Anne Palkovits is not currently available for an interview about the situation.

“St. Joseph's Health Centre is keenly aware of the importance of the opening of our newest facility in the community,” the statement reads.

“We have formulated our plans, scheduling and commitments for the opening based on Tribury's ongoing information relying on the contractor's experience, expertise and documentation.

“We will continue to work closely with our health care partners to deal with this unexpected news. We will continue with our hiring and consequent orientation of our staff. We will continue working with all the concerned parties to successfully and safely open Villa St. Gabriel's Villa.”

Joly said his organization had offered beds at St. Gabriel's Villa to several people last week.

While these offers will be honoured once the new nursing home opens, the North East CCAC isn't making any more offers of beds at St. Gabriel's Villa until it knows more about how construction is progressing.

Memorial residents who had requested beds in nursing homes other than St. Gabriel's Villa are still being placed in these facilities, Joly said.

He invites families of those awaiting placement in nursing homes to phone the North East CCAC at 705-522-3460.