The Government of British Columbia has approved the business plan for a new St. Paul’s Hospital, which will improve access to life-saving health care in downtown Vancouver.
“For over 125 years, people in Vancouver and across British Columbia have benefited from the health care provided by St. Paul’s Hospital,” said Premier John Horgan. “Today, we are safeguarding these life-saving services by taking action to build a brand-new St. Paul’s Hospital that will serve more people and offer better access to the specialized care people need.”
The new St. Paul’s will continue to serve the people of Vancouver and all of B.C. as an internationally renowned, full-service, acute-care hospital and integrated health campus. It will have capacity for up to 548 beds, which includes 115 net new beds. The site will be the home of several leading provincial programs and referral centres, including for heart and lung care, renal, eating disorders and specialty surgeries and transplants.
The hospital will also offer a diverse and long list of general and specialized care, including HIV/AIDS, chronic disease management services, emergency and critical care, mental health and addictions beds and programs, ambulatory services and outpatient clinics, end-of-life care, Indigenous health, maternity, colorectal and gastrointestinal services, and community care and community outreach programs.
St. Paul’s will continue to be a teaching hospital, training hundreds of University of British Columbia medical students, British Columbia Institute of Technology nursing students and hundreds of other health-sector professions. Integration of care, teaching and research — with emphasis on new knowledge rapidly translated into patient care solutions — will continue to be the focus of its research centres and specialized programs.
The project will be delivered using a design-build finance procurement model and will be cost-shared between the provincial government and Providence Health Care. The St. Paul’s Foundation campaign fundraising goal for Providence Health Care is anticipated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars with a portion allocated to the new core hospital. Jim Pattison, chairman and CEO of the Jim Pattison Group, has already donated $75 million to the future of St. Paul’s, a historic contribution in Canadian health-care philanthropy. The current St. Paul’s Hospital land at 1081 Burrard Street will be sold with funds going toward the project.
The first phase of the St. Paul’s redevelopment project is building a new core hospital. Phase 2 is expected to include a clinical support and research centre. Future development opportunities will be confirmed upon completion of the Station Street rezoning.
Doors of the new $1.9-billion St. Paul’s are expected to open in 2026 and will be located at 1002 Station St.
All new hospitals in B.C. are planned to a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standard.
