TORONTO - Contractors bidding on the redevelopment project have requested three additional weeks to the bid submission deadline.
The bidders require more time to incorporate design changes that will allow the hospital to offer additional private rooms in medical and surgical units. Sault Area Hospital and Infrastructure Ontario have granted an extension from May 9 to May 29, 2007 to provide bidders the time they require to complete their bid submissions.
Once construction is completed, private rooms will account for 40 to 50 per cent of the medical/surgical bed complement. The additional private rooms will not only allow the hospital to better meet today's infection control standards but will also provide additional comfort and privacy to patients and their families.
Construction is scheduled to begin in late summer 2007.
The Ontario government and the Sault Area Hospital are committed to moving this project forward to bring improved access to healthcare to the region.
The new Sault Area Hospital will consolidate the services of the two existing sites in a facility that is 20 per cent larger than the two hospitals combined. The new 289-bed hospital will house an emergency department twice its current size and will for the first time offer a radiation treatment satellite. The introduction of this satellite facility will ensure the more than 100,000 residents of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma region have access to this life-saving cancer care.
Infrastructure Ontario will work with the Sault Area Hospital to build the hospital, which will remain publicly owned, controlled and accountable. Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to managing some of the Province's larger and more complex infrastructure renewal projects -- ensuring they are built on time and on budget.
This project is guided by principles outlined in the Province's Building a Better Tomorrow framework, which ensures public ownership of core assets such as hospitals, schools, and water and wastewater facilities. The Sault Area Hospital project is one of many infrastructure projects being upgraded and modernized under ReNew Ontario, the government's five-year, $30 billion plus infrastructure investment plan.
Visit www.infrastructureontario.ca for more information.
Contacts:
Mandy Downes
Infrastructure Ontario
416-327-5325
Brady Irwin
Sault Area Hospital
705-759-3837
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