A TRANSFORMATIONAL GIFT

Announcing The Jim Pattison Acute Care Tower

On November 30th, 2022, the air was chilly and snow still dusted the ground from a recent storm. However, hearts were warm as Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation celebrated a transformational $30-million donation from Jimmy Pattison towards the completion of the newly named Jim Pattison Acute Care Tower. Hundreds of staff, donors, media, and special guests joined Foundation President & CEO, Jeff Norris, and Board Chair, Cameron Belsher, for this historic redevelopment announcement.

Jim Pattison Foundation’s transformational gift will join the combined contributions of thousands of gracious donors, supporting the second phase of Royal Columbian Hospital’s redevelopment project, focused on the Acute Care Tower. Royal Columbian is undergoing one of the most ambitious hospital redevelopments in Canadian history. The $1.49 billion, multi-phased project represents an unprecedented opportunity – and challenge – to elevate critical care at a hospital that serves one-third of BC’s population. With construction set for completion in 2025, the Jim Pattison Acute Care Tower will be crown jewel of the project.

“We want to express our sincere gratitude to Jimmy Pattison for this historic donation. Royal Columbian Hospital serves BC’s biggest health region and this gift, the largest in our region’s history, will ensure we can provide exceptional care to the patients who rely on the Columbian. The Jim Pattison Acute Care Tower will further elevate the lifesaving care Royal Columbian Hospital already delivers to patients across the province,” says Jeff Norris. “Major improvements are being made in service to an even larger vision: ensuring uncompromising care to every single person who

CONTINUES ON PAGE 10 needs it. The generosity of Jimmy Pattison — and all the donors who have answered our call — serves as a source of inspiration for others to help us achieve this vision.”

When asked what inspired him to join the thousands of other donors who have already stepped up to show their support to ensure that Royal Columbian’s legacy of exceptional care in our province is sustainable for future generations, Mr. Pattison was clear. “Sooner or later, most people will need the services of a hospital like Royal Columbian. The support of the customers of our companies such as Save-On-Foods makes it possible to give back in significant ways. Giving to the hospital is the best opportunity to help the greatest number of people in British Columbia.”

Mr. Pattison is recognised as a Canadian business icon and one of the most generous philanthropists in Canada. His generosity and support of healthcare is unsurpassed — no other donor has given more to healthcare in British Columbia.

Pattison was appointed to the Order of Canada (1987) and the Order of British Columbia (1990). He also received the Governor General’s Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary in Canada.

With one in three British Columbians relying on Royal Columbian, it is BC’s leading critical care hospital. It is the only hospital in BC with trauma, cardiac, neurosciences, high-risk maternity and neonatal intensive care on one site. Royal Columbian provides the highest level of care to some of the most critically ill and injured patients throughout the province. No other hospital in British Columbia provides all these services, at this level of care, on one site.

Building on Royal Columbian’s legacy, the Jim Pattison Acute Care Tower will include an interventional super-floor featuring operating rooms and suites for interventional radiology and cardiology, as well as a new Emergency Department with its own imaging unit – the Jack Gin Emergency & Trauma

Imaging Centre (GinETIC 1) – and the Windsor Plywood Foundation Trauma Rooms, which consists of two trauma bays with two beds each. It will also house new and expanded Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units, and the new 48-bed Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation Maternity Unit. In addition, it will also have multiple floors for acute and critical care patients, including the 47-bed Gregory Chan Intensive Care Unit. With almost double the current footprint, the redevelopment will increase the current capacity of Royal Columbian by approximately 50 percent to 675.

Patients, physicians, nurses, and the entire hospital family will benefit significantly from the new Jim Pattison Acute Care Tower. In addition to a larger footprint, the new tower will feature substantial upgrades in cuttingedge technologies, so healthcare teams can continue to respond to the needs of patients in their most urgent, life-altering moments and deliver the best possible outcomes.

The upgrades will include the introduction of innovative, robotassisted surgery and state-of-the art imaging technology that allows for absolute precision.

From the beginning, Royal Columbian has stood at the heart of health care in British Columbia. This redevelopment goes beyond just evolving the hospital. It is a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to ensure that clinicians and frontline healthcare providers have both the facilities and the innovative technology to offer optimal patient care for decades to come. Because people are the lifeblood of BC, Royal Columbian exists to serve them all. ■