As patients and staff settle into the new Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital work toward utilizing freed up space at Royal University Hospital continues.
The Executive Director of Infrastructure Management at the Saskatchewan Health Authority says the move of Maternal and Children’s Programs as well as Emergency to the children’s hospital has opened up 115-thousand square feet of new space at RUH.
Derek Miller says the temporary 22-bed unit for patients admitted through emergency should be ready in a few months while work and planning for staff continues on the 36-bed permanent unit.
The province is putting 2.6 million dollars into that project in 2019-20 followed by 8-million dollars in annual operating funds.
Meanwhile the current mental health unit continues to operate during the transition into the new seven bed unit with 1.5 million dollars in provincial funding promised for that project.
That unit is meant to provide acute care for up to seven days for each patient.
Millar says their goal is to address the most urgent patient care needs with the space available.