JoBrant hospital redevelopment on track

The “new” Joseph Brant Hospital is on time and on budget, hospital officials say.

More than 10 years after the overall idea was envisioned, Phase 2 of the hospital’s $500-million-plus redevelopment is taking shape with the centrepiece — a seven-storey tower — on schedule to open to patients on Aug. 21.

The tower will house a new emergency department, main entrance lobby and meeting space, all accessed from Lakeshore Road. It will also have nine operating rooms, a postanesthetic care unit, an expanded diagnostic imaging department, expanded cancer clinic, expanded Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a larger and modernized laboratory, and expanded medical, surgical and outpatient services.

Inside the tower — which was a little more than two-thirds complete as of Dec. 31 — the emergency room’s drywall is finished with the walls painted with “healing and calming colours” throughout.

The towers’ operating rooms have been constructed with special flooring and walls for infection prevention and control measures. Equipment is now being installed in the rooms.

Beginning in March, some staff will be able to use the ICU for training on patient rooms, equipment and floor layout.