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Fundraising target is now in development stage continued from p.12 Milton District Hospital Foundation Executive Director Helen Vatistas said a fundraising target is in the "preliminary stages" to secure funds from the community. "Hopefully, in the next year or so, we'll be moving forward a campaign and certainly asking our community to support the hospital," she said. In February, HHS and Infrastructure Ontario, the government's procurement arm for provincial projects, announced three teams are short-listed for the project. Hospital Infrastructure Partners, Milton Healthcare Partnership and Plenary Health will be asked in late March to respond to a request for proposal (RFP), laying out proposed costs of building and servicing the new stateof-the art healthcare facility. Artists' renderings of the facility's interior, created by architects and functional programmers, show an open-concept style Intensive Care Unit (ICU), promising peace and quiet and large windows to maximize outside views and natural light. Coady said studies have shown sunlight can impact a person's healing and promote an overall positive attitude. "The majority of the sunlight will be rising and falling on the entire part of the facility so there will be very good exposure," Coady said. "It really is all about the patients." The ICU, which will be more easily accessible to families, will also have an increased bed capacity of 10, up from the current six beds. Chief Operating Officer (COO) Janet Skupsky said the ICU is currently at 85 per cent capacity. "What we are trying to do is meet the demands of the community that we serve," Skupsky said. "We know we're just about at the max right now and so we are then speaking with the Ministry of Health to determine how much we can grow (the ICU)." The diagnostic imaging department will also be expanded and include a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, to be funded entirely by the hospital. Milton residents currently requiring an MRI are waiting up to two months for appointments at hospitals in Guelph or Oakville. "It's something we've heard loud and clear from the community as something that they would value," Skupsky said Wilkinson added having an MRI machine at the hospital's disposal is "a tremendous step forward in terms of a patient's convenience." Expanding operating suites and a postanesthetic care unit will help accommodate approximately 9,600 surgical procedures annually. The medical/surgical inpatient units will also grow from the current 29 beds to two, 36-bed units and capacity for 72 patients. Approximately 80 per cent of those will be single-patient rooms for infection prevention and control, as well as patient privacy. Aesthetically, the Milton hospital at the corner of Bronte Street and Derry Road, should keep its community feel with dozens of trees 13 | Thursday, April 3, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com A rendering depicting the aerial view of the forecourt of the proposed Milton District Hospital expansion project. |Rendering courtesy Halton Healthcare Services/photo by Nikki Wesley ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) We're designing the building knowing that we're going to need to expand. What we want to do is have the ability to expand in the future with minimal disruption to the operations, or the facility and leave as much flexibility in the design as possible so we can add to it in the future. Al Coady, executive director, Milton Redevelopment Project, HHS Al Coady soon to be planted at the site. "Once all the development fills in over the next 10 or 15, 20 years, the hospital will be in the centre of town," Vatistas said. "I think that's an important feature of the hospital because it really will be the heart of the community." The new building will also "dominate" over the original part of the hospital first constructed in the 1950s, before a south wing was added in the 1980s. "What we wanted to do is really lose perspective of the existing hospital and make the new, redeveloped facility the focus of the expansion," Coady said, explaining how the facility will also have a green roof to make it more environmentally sustainable. Some 400 new parking spots will also be added, bringing the total to 700. It's been a much-needed face-lift the hospital has been anticipating for some time, but HHS also has its sights on the future. Milton's 56 per cent growth rate and latest demographics suggest the town could see a population of 228,000 by 2031, and mean even more hospital construction. "We're designing the building knowing that we're going to need to expand," Coady said, noting the facility's 38-acres of available land. The Province has also approved the facility for "soft space" or extra rooms built as part of the current expansion, such as an additional operating room, that can be opened when needed. "What we want to do is have the ability to expand in the future with minimal disruption to the operations, or the facility," Coady said, and "leave as much flexibility in the design as possible so we can add to it in the future." Further south, the new Oakville hospital is set to open in late 2015, but Wilkinson said it's important for local residents to know "that we're not being swallowed up by the new Oakville hospital." "This is a local undertaking to service strictly Milton and some of our outlying areas, like Acton and Georgetown, where people will continue to come here for some services," Wilkinson said. "It's not part of Oakville's planning to accommodate the level one services that we're currently providing." As the hospital designs are fine-tuned and the RFP process moves forward, public consultation has sought input from former patients. Vatistas said the new hospital is something the community has been waiting for and will be enthusiastic to support once it sees what's planned. "It is something that quickly, when the doors open in early 2018, we will wonder how we functioned without this," she said. Next week, Halton Hospitals: Building Our Health Care, a special Metroland Media West four-part project, will conclude by featuring Halton Healthcare Services' Georgeown Hospital. For all the stories, photos and video, visit www.oakvillebeaver.com and http://insidehalton.com/video/4395970.