‘More capacity’ on the way as Canada’s biggest hospital to be built in Mississauga
Published October 16, 2024 at 4:59 pm
Health-care officials in Mississauga say patient care and access to crucial services will not suffer during construction of a new multibillion-dollar hospital over the next decade in Canada’s seventh-largest city.
With The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital to be built on the same Hurontario Street/The Queensway site where the current Mississauga Hospital has treated patients since 1958, some city officials recently expressed concern vital health services might suffer while the old structure is torn down as the new facility rises up.
However, that will not be the case, Trillium Health Partners president and CEO Karli Farrow assured Mississauga Ward 1 Coun. Stephen Dasko and his council colleagues last week.
THP, the umbrella organization that oversees Mississauga Hospital and Credit Valley Hospital in addition to the Queensway Health Centre on the Etobicoke-Mississauga border, will ensure access to important health services will not be negatively impacted during construction, she added.
“I can assure you there will only be more capacity in the system while we’re building, not less,” Farrow said during a presentation/question-and-answer session at city council on Oct. 9. “In fact, between now and 2033 (anticipated completion date for new hospital) … we’re brainstorming and thinking about options all the time on where we can unlock even more temporary capacity while we build the new hospital.”
Mississauga Ward 1 Coun. Stephen Dasko is concerned health services might suffer during construction of the new hospital.
Mississauga’s hospital system is currently overburdened, Farrow added, noting as of last week there were 118 patients “receiving care in the hallways” due to a lack of beds.
That will not be the case when The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital opens in 2033, she said, pledging a commitment to “make sure we don’t have hallway medicine just as we’re opening a new facility.”
Farrow added the huge hospital network is also anticipating the demand for services “will actually double” within the next 20 years.
Construction of the new hospital is expected to begin in spring 2025, hospital officials estimate. And when it opens in 2033, if all goes according to schedule, it will be the largest hospital in Canada, they added.
Cost-sharing details are still being finalized, with the projected cost of The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital pegged “in the billions,” Farrow said last week.
The provincial government is expected to cover the lion’s share of the cost, to the tune of about 80 to 85 per cent, with THP and City of Mississauga providing the remainder.
Trillium Health Partners president and CEO Karli Farrow told city council the new Mississauga hospital, when completed, will be a game changer for health care in Mississauga and across the GTA.
The new hospital is expected to expand the highly skilled workforce in Mississauga by some 2,400 new health-care professionals and more than 400 doctors, Farrow told council.
And at the peak of hospital construction, there will be roughly 3,000 workers on site.
When completed, the 22-storey hospital “will be Canada’s largest … right here in the heart of our city,” Farrow said.
She added it will be triple the size of the current health-care facility and be looked upon as a “destination health centre” that will provide much-needed care to the rapidly growing number of people in Mississauga and surrounding regions who’ll need it.
Rendering of what The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital will look like when completed in 2033. (Image: Trillium Health Partners)
The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital is named for the local developer/philanthropist who early in 2022 gifted $105 million to the project and it will occupy 2.8 million square feet when completed.
When it opens, THP officials say it will provide “more beds, shorter wait times and greater specialization closer to home for patients and their families.”
The new hospital will also include:
- the 200,000-sq.-ft. Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children
- 23 state-of-the-art operating rooms, up from current number of 14
- a new emergency department that will be three times the size of the current ER and one of the largest in Ontario
- more than 950 patient beds, an increase of about 350 over the current number
- many more private rooms