Background

Objections
Location

a) Driving times (table)
b) Dangerous Goods routes

Costs

a) $30 million for infrastructure
b)  Internet consulting to make travel obsolete?
c) U of C has no specific plans to build there for 20 years

Process

One big reason to wait: CHR elections

Media coverage
Opinion pieces
Catherine Ford, 
Penney Kome

Other Voices:
From the NE, NW, SW and SE parts of the city,
Calgarians speak out for participatory decision-making in health care, especially where the Children's Hospital is concerned. Submissions welcome.
 

Contact REACH
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

"The West Campus location is 184 acres of raw land that will require $30 Million of infrastructure development.  This money that could otherwise go directly into programs & services for kids from Calgary, as well as Southern Alberta, BC & Saskatchewan, will go towards asphalt & concrete and right-of-ways for roads, communications/electrical lines & gas/water/sewer pipes. The Site Selection Committee overlooked the Century Park (CP) location off Barlow Trail & Memorial Drive and erroneously labeled Century Park  with "perceptions" of being a "contaminated", "industrial" & "noisy airport" area.  Centrality & C Train service on-site at Century Park are key to accessibility for all stakeholders. The SSC recommended a shuttle bus service be established between CHR centres, but the CHR’s attitude for the most disadvantaged seems to be ‘let them take a taxi’. 
 
"The CHR was charging ahead with the ACH in 2001, while the Alberta provincal government was slashing spending by $1 Billion and the CHR itself was reporting a deficit of $38 Million, with a deficit of up to $200 Million next year.  This was in spite of the fact that an extra $70 Million was given to the CHR in the summer of 2001, with skyrocketing executive salaries cited among the reasons..."

The Calgary Regional Health Authority announced in September 2000 that it intended to build a new Children's Hospital, and that a site selection committee would be looking at several locations. 

In December 2000, the (then) CRHA announced that the committee recommended putting the Children's Hospital on the University Endowment Lands at 16th Avenue, between 29th Street NW and Shaganappi Trail. The new, $200 million hospital, would have 150 acute care beds, as well as research facilities and other, unspecified services. 

This location, the committee said, would guarantee the best quality of care, because it is across the road from the massive Foothills Medical Centre and near the University of Calgary. The committee also cited ease of commuting for the doctors who travel between the two hospitals and the University.

"Quality of care doesn't mean much," as one mother said, "if the child is dead when you get there!" In an emergency, only five to 10 minutes difference in travel time can mean the difference between life and death in cases such as drownings, poisonings, internal hemorrhage, or allergic reaction that turns anaphylactic. 

Most parents take a sick child to the hospital themselves, rather than calling an ambulance. Traveling with a child who is vomiting, bleeding, howling, or struggling to breathe, can be a nerve-wracking experience.

For four out of six test-drives from distant points of the city, driving time to the University of Calgary location was longer than driving time to three other possible locations: Lincoln Park, Fire Park, and the old General Hospital site. See map. 

The CHR says that parents should take sick children to the nearest Emergency Ward (ie, Rockyview or the Peter Lougheed Hospital) and that new Diagnostic and Treatment (DAT) Centres in the North and South ends of the City will alleviate the pressure on the ACH. 

However, the CHR also says that overcrowding in the current Emergency Room makes construction of a new ACH urgent. Since the Programs and Services Committee still has not released the report promised for November 2000, the public does not know whether the proposed ACH will in fact have greater capacity in its new ER. There has been some indication that the CHR will rely on the new DAT Centres instead of expanding the ACH emergency facilities.

What the public does know, of course, is that Calgary used to have three more hospitals with Emergency Rooms than it has now (the Bow Valley, the Grace and the Holy Cross) and that the lone Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at 8th and 8th does not have the capacity to substitute for all three.

Meanwhile, there are still the 75,000 patient visits a year to the ACH for therapy. The proposed northwest location is not particularly easy for most Calgarians to reach. According to the 2000 civic census, 55 per cent of Calgary's population and 64 per cent of children under 14 live in the south. 

For low-income parents in the Southeast who rely on public transit, taking a child to the U of C location for therapy probably will involve at least two buses and possibly a train ride -- meaning each visit will take about half a day in travel time, not to mention waiting room time. 

Residents of Albert Park/Radisson Heights, Mayland Heights, Coventry Hills, and other Calgary neighbourhoods, have raised serious objections to the proposed  NW location. Interestingly, what they mention most is the near-gridlock congestion along 16th Ave and University Drive when the Stampeders are playing -- and NObody can get through, sick child or not.
Anotherconcern about location is that the U of C site is adjacent to Highway 1 (16th Avenue) and overlooks the main train track from the mountains to downtown. Highway 1 is the main Dangerous Goods route through town, and freight trains also carry hazardous materials. The CHR is already committed to building the new Colonel Belcher facility on Parkdale Drive. Putting the ACH on the U of C site would mean that if there was a hazardous material spill on Highway 1 OR from a train, the authorities would have THREE hospitals to evacuate. 

The province and CRH will pay an estimated $30 million in infrastructure costs to put the Children's Hospital on the Endowment Lands, including a projected $11.5 million for an overpass across 16th Avenue NW.  (The overpass estimate seems low; a recent overpass at Crowchild and Shaganappi Trails cost $18 million.)  If built, the overpass would be the fifth major interchange on 16th Avenue in less than 2 km, with a sixth expected at 29th Street before long.   All Calgarians should ask themselves: how fast can you weave in traffic?

Put another way, the infrastructure costs alone are three times the CRHA's entire $10.5 million capital expenditures (equipment) budget for the year 2001. All of the other three locations (Fire Park, Lincoln Park and Bridgeland) already have services in place or readily available. None would require installing new water, sewage and electrical services, nor would any of them require the new roadways and major interchange. 
$30 million could buy a lot of healthcare services for Calgarians and all Albertans. 

By the time the new ACH is built, in 2005, the notion that doctors have to travel in order to consult may well seem obsolete.  Doctors and technologists will consult through videoconferencing and the Internet. A recent CHR video boasts that doctors can view diagnostic imaging results from their own offices even now. 

The University of Calgary and Foothills Hospital already participate in a major Telehealth program.  With 60 videoconference sites and 15 teleultrasound workstations, Alberta’s telehealth network is "one of the largest in the world," says Alberta Wellnet.  Internet and videoconference communications, say the Canadian Society of Telehealth and the (federal) Office of Health and the Information Highway,  are the way of the future. Hospitals don't need to be adjacent in order to be partners. Toronto Children's Hospital has widespread partnerships through its Telehealth program. 

Finally, the proposed location still requires ambulance transport from one hospital to the other. Patients arriving at the new hospital may just as well approach from 24th Avenue or 32nd Avenue as attempt to drive west on 16th Avenue.
The University of Calgary has a Master Plan for the Endowment Lands, but expects to concentrate its construction for the next twenty years on filling in its main campus. The CHR has emphasized that the new ACH will be part of a Child Health Network, with components spread throughout Calgary and Southern Alberta. Although the $11.5 million interchange might save a few doctors a few moments when they do travel between Foothills and ACH, it is an open question who else would actually use it.

The CRH has often referred to the fact that the Site Selection Committee carried out fifty consultations with doctors, parents and patients. What the CHR does not report as often is that the U of C site was the *least* preferred by parents, healthcare workers, and the general public. 

Twenty-eight percent of the patients and parents voted for the Lincoln Park site and 25% for Century Park. Only 21% preferred the U of C location for the new ACH. 

Most popular choice in the Public and Community was the Century Park site, with 32% of the vote. Only 19% preferred the U of C lands.

Healthcare and hospital locations are essential elements in city planning -- except in Alberta. Dr Harold Swanson, known for his civic work including his work for Friends of the General Hospital, sent along some comments relevant to the discussion about the location of the new Children's Hospital.

Under section 50 of the Universities Act, construction on University land is not subject to regular City planning processes. Only through persistent lobbying by local community groups, and the heroic efforts of Alderman Dale Hodges, have there been any public displays or hearings at all.

Nevertheless, it seems that the proposed project may not be in accordance with other legislation and regulations.

The (former) Infrastructure Minister confirmed in a letter that, under section 20 of the Universities act,  the University will need to seek approval from the Lieutenant-Governor, in order to arrange a longterm lease with the CRHA to put the hospital on the Endowment Land.

There is a convenant on the current ACH property, stipulating that if the land is not used for a hospital, ownership reverts to the City.

In October, Albertans will finally be able to elect members of their Health Authority Boards, for the first time since Ralph Klein's Tories dissolved the local Health Boards in 1990.

Only two-thirds of each Regional Health Authority Board will be elected, and the other one-third appointed by the province. At least one potential candidate has said that his campaign would focus on building the new ACH at a more suitable and more central site. 

The CHR and U of C have indicated that they wish to begin construction by late summer 2001, in order to have the hospital complete for Alberta's centenary in 2005. But the Programs and Services Committee has not even reported back yet, about what programs and services should be offered on the site.

What is the big hurry? If the decision is sound, and made for the right reasons, surely construction can start after the October municipal elections. 

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