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A4 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, M ay 17, 2000 Hospital CEO says long term care beds will be ready by the fall of2001 B y H ow ard Mozel OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF After years of hope and frustration, the abandoned high school site adjacent to Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) has been given the go-ahead for a 128-bed long-term care facility. "We are thrilled to have received the green light to proceed with this develop ment," said Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) president and CEO John Oliver. "These long term care beds are essential for our community and will assist the hospital in meeting both the acute and long term healthcare needs of our resi dents." Late last year, HHS officials were informed by Queen's Park that their pro posal to use the abandoned Oakville Trafalgar High School (OTHS) site in partnership with Extendicare Canada as a 150-bed facility had been short-listed. Their previous submission for the land was turned down, which was partic ularly vexing since the 7.8 acres are already zoned and waiting to be devel oped. With last week's announcement regarding the OTHS site, Oliver said construction is now targeted to begin in March 2001 with work completed in April 2002. The first patients can then be admitted in May 2002. "The adjacent high school site pre sents unique design and operational opportunities to combine programs and services for elderly people and for people needing restorative care in one site which would be physically linked to the hospi tal," said Oliver. "In addition to long term care beds, we will be able to relocate some geriatric and rehabilitation services and a complex continuing care unit to the new development." Feeding into this good news story, of course, is the future of those temporarily housed in the 34-bed OTMH/Extendicare nursing home on the hospital's fifth floor. Extendicare's lease to use OTMH's fifth floor expires FU R STO RAG E · COMPETITIVE RATES & EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE · FREE PICK-UP & DELIVERY VAULTS ON PREMISES 10% SENIOR DISCOUNT · FREE 9-POINT INSPECTION & ESTIMATE 10% DISCOUNT BY PRE PAYING YOUR STORAGE · in September 2000 and families had been hoping that new accommodations would be up and running before then. According to Oliver, however, the "first wave" of new local beds won't be onstream until fall 2001. HHS (which includes Milton District Hospital) has been trying to carefully balance the fifth floor residents' needs against the growing need of the commu nity at large for acute care beds, he con- ' tinued, especially in the wake of recent peak periods when patients were housed on stretchers. To that end, a plan has been hatched to allow the fifth floor residents to stay at OTMH for another year. This involves finding space for at least 30 acute care beds elsewhere in the hospital, including 1 East. This will necessitate the displacement o f some services (such as geriatric assessment) to other areas of the facility and portable rooms are being considered. The bottom line is, the fifth floor long term care residents will not be moved. "That should tide us through," said Oliver. This recommendation will go before the HHS Board when it meets in June. A m eeting has been scheduled between HHS and the families of fifth floor residents on Thursday, May 25 to fully brief them on the situation. Oliver explained that the OTHS site will also allow HHS to follow through with directives from the Health Services Restructuring Committee and the findings of other reports for beds which cannot be phys ically accommodated within the exist ing hospital site. Trio split $1 m illion An Oakville man is one of three co workers at Fox Fluid Power Inc. who will share in the winnings of the $1 million Ontario 49 lottery draw on May 13th. Damir Fox, 36, a married father of three daughters and vice-president of Fox Fluid Power Inc., will split the money with his father Anton, 56, and Lucie Chaput. Fox plans to put the money to towards his mortgage and build a cottage. CLEANING · REPAIRS · RESTYLING (all w ork done on prem ises) · Jill Rules have changed, television added when Alliance candidates in Oakville Rather than answering written questions in their June 1st Oakville leadership debate, the four contenders for the Canadian Alliance Party will be taking questions directly from the floor. The original plan was to have the public submit written questions from which a selection would be chosen. Now, the quartet will give short speech es, followed by a 70-minute question and anwer period from the audience. The change should come as wel come news to those planning to attend the event, which takes place at St. Volodymyr Cultural Centre from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. All four leadership hope fuls - Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, Dr. Keith Martin and Tom Long - will be in attendance. Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Tony Clement will be moderator. Another new wrinkle is that CPAC, the Canadian Parliamentary Access Channel, will be on hand to tape the debate. Tickets to the event are $10 each in advance by calling Jim Kettles at 8470202. On the night of the debate, the doors open at 5:30 p.m. The evening is being sponsored by the O akville Alliance Riding Association, with support by Alliance ridings in Burlington, Halton and four others in Hamilton. A FAMILY BUSINESS FOR 6 GENERATIONS SINCE 1815 845-2031 209 Lakeshore Rd E. Downtown Oakviile EN N ISC LA R E IN T ER IO R S A T r a d i t i o n of E l e g a n c e ST TO ORE* W W IID DE ES ** S p r in g S IS O N N O W a le Relax. 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