St Paul is supposed to be heritage building. Is the city/church/hospital able to sell the building + land to developers?

an older article mentioned that 55% of the patients at St Paul's were from outside Downtown - it makes sense to have a location that's more central, has more parking, and also is easier to get to via public transit.

As well, the majority of the patients that use the ER at St pauls were from the DTES.

better pray Canucks don't make the Stanley cup finals when the current one closes and DT locks down

While 55% is more than 1/2, it isn't really an overwhelming majority though. Another thing is the overall capacity. Speaking from experience, I would say that our urgent (medical) care in BC is still top notch. But as soon as you move into a non (immediately) life threatening situation, be prepared to wait -- it is going to take a while. Our healthcare system's capacity to process those non (immediately) life threatening cases could really use a lot of improvement. Having an extra hospital in the region could go a long way in relieving that.

Was born there. Sad to see it go

I was trying to source where I read the 55%, but the vancitybuzz (yay!) article said that Providence Data says that 40% of the patients from St Paul's are from outside Vancouver, not downtown.

Some people are saying that Mt St Joseph will likely close down as well.

If the non-DT patients only make up for 40% of St. Paul's patient base, then having St. Paul move out of DT will be a major inconvenience for the DT residents as I was suspecting.

I have dealt with both St. Paul and MSJ on numerous occassions -- both are run by Providence and they share the same patient database. Despite its small size and their more limted range of services, I have always been very impressed by how good their quality of care has been. It'll be sad of either MSJ or St. Paul comes out losing as a result of this upheaval.

Location is everything... specially for a hospital. With a city this congested, False Creek is too far.

If lives really mattered to this government it would build a new earth quake resistant hospital in the same place... but such a property and the milking of its property tax is greater then what people deserve.

think I just...thanked CiC's post?

Currently work at SPH. They are still upgrading the elevators right now. So it doesn't really make sense to move. But the Burrard building is not earthquake proof so it's a safety issue for sure.

False Creek is too far from the Downtown core as well and if they do remove the viaduct, it will be a problem for sure.

As for haunted stories, read this from an ex security guard who worked there.

[Experience] The haunting of St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada. : Paranormal

I know SPH isn't entirely earthquake proof but could it not be converted into a....you know....

Mental health facility?

Transform it into the Arkam Asylum. Vancouver's own version, it being an old heritage building is a nice start.

Yea and it will eventually close down just like how Riverview did. No budget.

SPH right now has pretty good mental health facilities. 4 to 5 inpatient psych and ER psych. And the normal ER beds sometimes all get filled up with psych patients too. It's pretty overwhelming for ER staff. I hope they expand it at the new false creek location or else VGH will get overwhelmed.

coherent, intelligible, not a cracker rant.... CiC, what happened to you?

Just being myself as always... maybe its you guys that have changed :p

last week I see a post that didn't contain zionist cats...now this...

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertai...121220_ssh.jpg

The new site actually makes a lot of sense when it comes to the future of the city. do you really imagine that st.pauls can continue to expand with it's current location in the future? There's heritage houses and skyscrapers on all corners of its location. The new location is HUGE, nearly a kilometer long for pete sakes. It's close to a major, recently renovated skytrain station, the train/bus station, and a number of bus stops. According to cbc the majority of st.pauls use has been from out of towners so the close proximity to a skytrain and the bus station does seem like a better motive. And not to mention the overall growth of the city and what potential this new location could have. VGH is surrounded by skyscrapers, expensive real estate and heritage houses as well so we could potentially see the future of most of vancouvers health care at the future location. not to mention it's close to the lower east side, an area with a high demand for emergency service and citizens with medical needs. The people of the west end can suck up the 10-15 minute transit time to get to the hospital. You don't hear the other half of the city complaining when it comes glaringly apparent that all the major hospitals in the city are located within 10 blocks of downtown vancouver.

^ Many people who live in the West End are retired/semi-employed and have A LOT of time on their hands to complain about anything and everything. This move makes sense, but the City of Vancouver probably has a lot to lose since they were probably counting on taxation from the destruction of the viaducts.