New acute care tower to be built for Surrey Memorial Hospital expansion

The 2014-built expansion of Surrey Memorial Hospital. (HDR Architecture)

Surrey Memorial Hospital will receive a major expansion to better meet the healthcare needs of the South of Fraser area’s rapidly growing population.

The provincial government announced this week it will build a new acute care tower for the hospital, which is located on the southern border of Surrey City Centre and near King George SkyTrain Station.

This will provide a net gain in the hospital’s capacity for acute and specialized care, including medical, surgical, pediatric, perinatal, women’s health, and mental health and stroke care.

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“Surrey’s quickly growing population needs health care to grow with it. People need to know health care is accessible, not after a long wait or a long drive to another community,” said Premier David Eby.

BC Minister of Health Adrian Dix added, “We’re significantly expanding facility and human-resource capacities to meet the increasing needs of the growing and aging Surrey population head-on, and now adding a new acute care tower at Surrey Memorial Hospital. We look forward to hearing from healthcare workers and community members during this crucial stage of the planning process to get input on the facility.”

There are no details on the design and size of the expansion at this very early stage of planning.

Over the next 15 to 18 months, the project will enter the business planning phase, which will determine the project scope, budget, timelines, and procurement strategy. This planning work will lead to the creation of a business plan, which is the key step before construction begins.

The provincial government’s 2024 budget released last month, which outlines a three-year budget forecast through the 2026/2027 fiscal year, does not include any funding for this major expansion of Surrey Memorial Hospital. This week’s announcement comes ahead of the provincial election later in 2024.

But the announcement does build on the provincial government’s Summer 2023-announced 30 actions to improve healthcare services in Surrey, including reviewing the capacity needs of Surrey Memorial Hospital.

The 2014-built expansion of Surrey Memorial Hospital. (HDR Architecture)

With deteriorating service conditions at Surrey Memorial Hospital reaching critical levels, there have been growing calls from frontline hospital staff and other local officials for the provincial government to make major reinvestments into the hospital.

The 2014-built, 57,000 sq ft emergency department, which is nearly five times larger than the hospital’s previous ER, regularly experiences exceedingly long wait times, with critics now saying it is risking the well-being of patients in urgent need of care.

Since late 2023, the hospital has operated a portable building with two exam rooms outside the emergency department entrance to serve as an overflow waiting room for pediatric patients. As well, hospital staff recently revealed the sickest children and adults are increasingly being transferred to other hospitals in Metro Vancouver as Surrey Memorial Hospital is constrained in its ability to provide such patients with a higher level of care.

Surrey currently has an estimated population of about 685,000. When the hospital’s previous major expansion opened in 2014, Surrey had a population of about 500,000, representing a 37% increase over the past 10 years. It is estimated Surrey added about 2,000 more people every month in 2022 and 2023.

By 2029, the City of Surrey is expected to become BC’s most populated city by reaching 785,619 residents — squeaking past Vancouver’s forecast of 780,075 residents. The gap led by Surrey will grow with each passing year afterward, with Surrey also expected to become the first BC municipality to reach one million residents by 2042.

In addition to the new emergency department, the 2014-built expansion provided Surrey Memorial Hospital with a new eight-storey critical care tower, which expanded the acute care capacity by 30% to about 650 beds. This includes 48 private neonatal rooms, 25 intensive care beds, 25 high acuity unit beds, and a range of other services and supporting facilities.

The 2014-built expansion of Surrey Memorial Hospital. (HDR Architecture)

The location of the future new acute care tower, based on the campus master plan for Surrey Memorial Hospital. (Google Maps)

The location of the new acute care tower at the hospital campus has yet to be formally confirmed. But based on the 2014 expansion’s long-term hospital campus master plan, the large vacant lot at the northeast corner of the intersection of King George Boulevard and 94a Avenue is the designated site for the future acute care tower, which enables a direct connection to the critical care tower.

“This new acute care tower at the Surrey Memorial Hospital marks a significant milestone in our mission to meet the dynamic health needs of our growing population,” said Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health. “Our vision for the cutting-edge health-services campus is to inspire innovation and excellence for our patients, families and communities, and to be the best place to work for our teams.”

In addition to these plans to provide Surrey Memorial Hospital with a major expansion, construction has begun on Surrey’s second hospital in Cloverdale — a $2.9 billion facility at 5500 180 Street, next to the Kwantlen Polytechnic University campus. The Cloverdale hospital will feature 168 beds — including medical/surgical beds, high acuity beds, and medical beds — and an emergency department with 55 treatment spaces. The hospital will include a new BC Cancer Care facility with a 50-room oncology ambulatory care unit, 54 chemotherapy treatment spaces, and room for six linear accelerators for radiation therapy.

But there are growing questions over whether the new Cloverdale hospital, which is expected to reach completion and open in 2030, is already under-sized, given the population growth trajectory of Surrey and the South of Fraser as a whole.

Several other major hospital expansion or redevelopment projects across Metro Vancouver are also in the construction stage, including St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, Burnaby Hospital, Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, and Richmond Hospital. In 2021, the provincial government approved the business case for Richmond Hospital’s new $861 million replacement acute care tower, which will provide 353 beds — representing a net gain of 113 beds — and a brand new and expanded emergency department.

Artistic rendering of the new Cloverdale hospital at 5500 180 Street, Surrey. (Government of BC)

Surrey’s rapid population growth is also throwing its public schools off balance, with Surrey School District increasingly becoming dependent on using portable structures to meet its enrolment demand. School district and municipal officials have long maintained that the provincial government has not kept up with the required pace of new-build permanent school expansions.

During Monday’s public meeting, Surrey City Council approved a member motion by Mayor Brenda Locke directing City staff to review how provincial and federal infrastructure investments in Surrey compare to Vancouver and other major Canadian cities.

“As the second largest city in BC, Surrey has fallen woefully behind in transit, supportive housing, health care, education, and other large infrastructure projects,” said Locke.

“In light of this ongoing shortfall, I introduced a motion to have staff conduct a review of how provincial and federal infrastructure funding to Surrey compares with Vancouver and similar-sized cities across the country. It is no secret that Surrey has not received its fair share and I hope this audit will shine a light on how acute the infrastructure deficit is in what will soon be the largest city in the province.”

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