Jim Pattison will match donations to Burnaby Hospital this fall
Burnaby Hospital is currently undergoing a huge redevelopment to transform the beloved community hospital into a state-of-the-art facility that will accommodate the quickly-growing populations of Burnaby and East Vancouver.
The building was originally constructed in 1952 to serve a much smaller community than exists in the area now, and it has not received a major upgrade in over five decades.
At the time of construction, Burnaby was home to only 80,000 people, a far cry from its current population. Burnaby Hospital Foundation, the fundraising organization supporting the hospital, recently announced a $5 million matching gift from entrepreneur and philanthropist Jim Pattison towards the redevelopment campaign — an initiative that will modernize and upgrade the hospital.
This generous gift means that Jim Pattison will match any donation to Burnaby Hospital Foundation, so donations contributed by the public will now be doubled and have twice the impact. In just a few short months, an astounding $2.5 million has already been raised.
The demand for care is ever-growing, but the hospital has reached its capacity. “Our Emergency Department was designed for 54,000 visits a year, and right now we’re supporting 50% more of that per year,” she says. “There’s also a lack of inpatient beds [and] that can cause significant wait times and delays.”
According to Sleiman, medical staff and healthcare professionals at Burnaby Hospital urgently need access to more contemporary spaces and equipment so that they can continue to deliver efficient and high-quality patient care.
“We have extremely dedicated staff who are feeling limited by the constraints in this aging facility,” she says. “One concern that the redevelopment helps address is designing clinical and patient areas that will fit current and future equipment. When the hospital was originally built, equipment was generally smaller, had fewer requirements, and processes were vastly different. The redevelopment provides much-needed space to help elevate the standard of care we can offer patients.”
The first phase of the redevelopment includes the construction of the new six-floor Keith and Betty Beedie Pavilion, a patient-care tower that will add the space needed to grow and improve surgery services, create a new maternity centre, and build a new mental health unit. Upgrading and modernizing the hospital’s surgical services is of critical importance and includes the new Jim Pattison Surgery Centre, which will be named in honour of the BC entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Meanwhile, the existing Support Facilities Building will be expanded and renovated to accommodate more patients and improve patient flow, with significant upgrades to the Emergency Department and operating room suites.
Construction of the first phase is set to be completed as soon as 2025 and, once finished, will have an immediate and future impact on patients, staff, and the surrounding community as a whole.
“We envision Burnaby Hospital will be a destination for modern healthcare and talented healthcare professionals — people in the field will want to come and work in the hospital because it will be a centre of excellence,” Sleiman says. “And patients will benefit by having access to increased medical services in the new hospital.”
According to Sleiman, every donation towards the redevelopment campaign, no matter the size, has a significant impact.
“Someone that you know will need access to a hospital at one point in time or another. Donating is a great way to make an investment in your community. We are so close to hitting the first major milestone in our redevelopment campaign — raising $30 million to support medical services that are crucial for all families. However, our job is nowhere near done. This is going to be an ongoing project and this first step is only one piece of a bigger project.”
“We’ve been so impressed by how the community has come together since Mr. Pattison announced his $5 million matching gift. It really motivates [the community] to see someone like Mr. Pattison leading by example and getting involved, so they know that their donation is going that much further.”
To donate to Burnaby Hospital Foundation for double the impact or to learn more about the redevelopment, click here.
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