The province announced Monday it was building another hospital in Cloverdale.
B.C has purchased property beside Kwantlen Polytechnic University campus at 5580 180 St for the new facility.
Premier John Horgan addressed a crowd at the announcement Monday morning.
“This is a great day for people in Surrey as we are delivering a new hospital in the community,” said Premier John Horgan. “Surrey is a fast-growing community and people will be able to count on better health care close to home for generations to come with the approval of this project.”
The new Surrey hospital will have inpatient beds, an emergency department, operating rooms, laboratory and diagnostic services, and outpatient services.
Horgan said the province will initiate a business plan, which will likely take a year, and another two months or so until it goes out to tender.
“It will be completed in time for someone to have a baby,” Horgan quipped.
Adrian Dix, the minister of health, said the project is now part of the province’s capital plan, so all lights are green.
“We are now all systems go for a second hospital in Surrey,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “The Premier promised the City of Surrey a new hospital and today, we are delivering on that promise. This is a key commitment to help meet the health-care needs of Surrey’s rapidly growing community.”
This hospital is part of work underway to deliver comprehensive health services for people in Surrey, including a new urgent and primary care centre, a new mental health and substance use urgent care response centre, and a second MRI machine at Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre.
Provincewide, thousands more MRI tests are being performed each year through the Surgical and Diagnostic Imaging Strategy. People are accessing team-based health care with the launch of new local primary care networks and the announcement of 14 urgent and primary care centres, 12 of which are already open.
The province acknowledges how busy Surrey’s hospital is expected to get.
Outpatient visits in Surrey will expand by 43 per cent in 10 years, and emergency room visits will skyrocket by 44 per cent in that same time.