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New Cancer Centre at Southlake Regional Health Centre Proceeds to Next Stage

Newmarket, Ontario - December 21, 2006 Southlake is one step closer to delivering advanced cancer services to the residents of York Region and southern Simcoe County.  On Thursday, December 21, the Honourable George Smitherman, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care announced that Southlake can advance to the tender stage of the Regional Cancer Centre project. Minister Smitherman was joined at the announcement by the Honourable Belinda Stronach, MP for Newmarket-Aurora, Daniel Carriere, President and CEO, Terry Sullivan, President and CEO of Cancer Care Ontario, and Kathy Proudfoot, patient and cancer survivor.

“It’s an unfortunate fact that cancer touches the lives of many Ontarians,” said Smitherman. “That’s why the McGuinty government is determined to help cancer patients in York Region – one of the fastest-growing areas of our province. We’re helping Southlake Regional Health Centre work quickly to build this new regional cancer centre and help local residents gain better access to the vital services they need to lead healthier lives closer to their families and their community.”

The next step for the project is the Tender stage.  The process that will be followed for this stage of the project is typical of most major projects.  Bid documents are prepared by our Consultants (Vermeulen/Hind Architects); they include drawings, specifications and instructions to the bidders.  They are sent to pre-qualified contractors to bid on the project.  During the bid preparation period, the bidders will visit the site, review the documents and prepare their quotes.  Once the bids are received and reviewed, Southlake will determine the winning bidder with the assistance and recommendation of the Consultants. A package containing this recommendation and the three lowest bids is sent to the Ministry of Health for review and approval to award the contract.  We anticipate this final approval from the Ministry of Health in mid to late March of this year.

In addition to the good news for the new Cancer Centre, the Minister made the following additional announcements to improve patient care at Southlake:

• Up to $6.1 million in additional funding for Southlake Regional’s existing redevelopment project, the capital costs for implementing the Arrhythmia Program as well as infrastructure cost to address the containment of infectious diseases in the emergency department.
• $5.4 million to support the expansion of services and other costs associated with the existing redevelopment project (inpatient and outpatient cancer services, inpatient and outpatient surgical services, complex continuing care, neonatal services and rehabilitation services).
• Support for three additional capital projects to accommodate the hospital services needed with the new cancer centre (expansion of the clinical laboratory, a new diagnostic imaging unit, and building space for a CT scanner).

Expected to open in early 2009, the new Cancer Centre will offer a full range of services including diagnostics, surgery, chemotherapy, support services clinical trials and radiation therapy.  The centre will have the capacity for 52,000 new patient visits for radiation therapy, while overall visits for cancer treatment will increase six-fold to almost 95,000 per year in 2012.

Cheered on by the Southlake Rocks Cheerleaders, Dan Carriere, President and CEO (far right) presents Southlake Rocks t-shirts to Belinda Stronach, MP, Newmarket-Aurora; George Smitherman, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care; Kathy Proudfoot, former patient and cancer survivor, and Dr. Terry Sullivan, CEO, Cancer Care Ontario following the Minister's December 21 announcement.

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