The Ottawa Hospital Master Plan

Hospital capacity is extremely important and I'm happy more specialized services will be available to residents. However, in creating this new campus, I'm concerned about the environmental impact. For example, what steps- if any- are being taken to save mature trees from construction? Planting new ones doesn't resolve the immediate need for a green canopy.

I'm also concerned about the lack of engagement and consultation with people from the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation, like the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation. While the city may "own" the land on paper, this is their territory, never surrendered under both Canadian and Indigenous law. Any movement forward without a positive consensus from the nation is in bad faith.

It's a great shame no hospital is being built in Barrhaven or in Stittsville, where population has grown vastly.
The Queensway is not able to over all of Nepean as well as these areas. It could have funnelled the crowds in the Civic and others, to the newer hospital, which would be much closer to the people needing care.
If the Senators move inner city, the stadium should be turned into a medical care building with multiple services, if not a hospital.

How will the future Carling LRT be incorporated into the site?

Why is there no direct bike path through the campus to Prince of Wales Dr? Also, is there a active transportation connection from the campus to Birch Dr allowing active transportation to continue to use this link? It is unclear in the drawings.

Why cut off the bike path? You should have worked around it and put the parking elsewhere. Indeed, the whole new hospital should have been put on the LRT line at Tunney's pasture.

What specifically will be treated for mental illnesses in the new Ottawa Hospital, specifically concerned with current TOH sites , and other Ottawa Hospitals ( QCH , Monfort ) none of which include specialty Drs /staffed to treat the various substance use disorders ( per DSM V) . When a hospital tells family & patient in crisis in their ED , sorry our psychiatric Dept/Unit is for psychiatric psychosis illness , if yiu want a psychiatric consult you need to get in touch with ROYAL Ottawa as we don’t treat SUD here . ROH was years ago removed status to operate as urgent care ( ED closed with provincial govt claims that SUD ED health care to be absorbed by all other Ottawa Hospital ED’s , this is not the case to date . How will new state of the art mental health unit at new Civic hospital treat this health concern of SUD , both as Urgent care and after inpatient care needs ? Experience from supporting our loved one over the past 12 years with concurrent disorders , only Dr’s at ROH treat this demographic, with very limited inpatient beds , and they operate without urgent care designation. Not even ICU beds dedicated for SUD with qualified Dr’s who have at least interned / studied addiction & substance use disorders permitted at ROH. Sadly under-serviced demographic of health care in Ottawa area. No medical supervised detox with 24x7 attendings having Addiction medicine qualifications, those Drs are only at ROH during normal weekday working hrs able to see patients .

Why not build a series of smaller distributed hospitals so that people do not have to come downtown on already congested streets (Carling-Preston & Bronson intersections)? The plan already proposes sprawl well beyond the Sir John Carling Site. Where is a full independent environmental impact study and where is a a full independent traffic analysis considering all developments proposed for the Carling/ Preston area? What are the infrastructure costs estimates for sewer, water, street services?

Apparently my comments need to be in the form of questions... Given the incompetence that the LRT inquiry exposed, and the uniformly negative feedback that the city has received on these pages, why should we not suspect that the Civic Hospital plan is similarly flawed? What is the process for initiating an independent public inquiry into the Civic Hospital's expansion plan? Should we initiate such an independent inquiry, and if not, why not?

Those in charge of this project are paying attention to the recent scathing LRT inquiry report and making the connections. That's good, but incestuous and not likely to lead to meaningful changes. We need an independent public inquiry of the Ottawa Civic expansion plan now, with emphasis on the word "independent"!

The Ottawa Hospital is already over twice the “sweet spot” for size and poised to waste $200 million annually through compromised patient care once built.

The Ottawa Hospital should shed its emergency wards and secondary levels of care and let these funds go toward community hospitals, placed where they’re needed.

The Ottawa Hospital should get smaller, not larger, by focussing on tertiary and quaternary care, like the Heart Institute does.

Bigger is NOT better

**Is bigger better? Concentration in the provision of secondary care – John Posnet BMJ. 1999 Oct 16; 319(7216): 1063–1065

There is good evidence that the Mega Hospital model has serious problems from both efficiency and patient care aspects. The following article is a recent review article on this subject, one that only comes only once in a generation - it confirms that the "sweet spot" for hospital patient counts is between 200 and 400 beds, whether a single or multiple sites. The Ottawa Hospital is already well over that. It's probable that the operating costs will be well over $2 billion annually, and that the waste due to the excessive size could be as much as $200 million per year. How can we justify this?

Efficiency and optimal size of hospitals: Results of a systematic search - Giancotti M, Guglielmo A, Mauro M (2017) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0174533

I notice that all 51 comments (that have not been removed by the moderator) have been negative, with no reply from the organizers of the Ottawa Hospital Master Plan. Most hospital projects are welcomed with open arms. Why is this one so different?

Building 2,400 parking spaces is truly shocking. We need to be investing in transit and safe streets to improve the quality of life for all residents. A central hospital with good access for cyclists and transit users would be more equitable, safer, and have less of an impact on locals and the environment. Investing millions in a directing more car traffic to this central location is a tragedy.

Hello,
It is nothing short of a sin that the historic site of the Experimental Farm has been chosen for the Ottawa Hospital. There will be no way to contain the footprint of the hospital to simply what is being designed. People will, out of necessity, find ways to park and use others areas of the farm to avoid parking fees. Have you used a drone to see the actual footprint of existing hospitals in the City and how far out people park?
With environmental impacts so front and centre, I simply do not understand why this open and formerly protected heritage area would have been chosen when other options existed....and frankly still do exist. Why designate a site to be of historical significance if years later it is destroyed. And there is no question about this, it will be utterly destroyed.
There is time to correct this decision. For our future and the future for generations to come.

It seems very unlikely that city "planners" and the hospital overlords have any interest in what citizens have to say about the site for the hospital. A basic consideration is why build a "superhospital" when advanced countries and cities are moving away from that model. And then there are the considerations specific to the Dow's Lake site, all of which have been well documented - limited access, unnecessary destruction of important tree canopy and current park space, distance from transit, disincentives to use public transit, etc. - and so far pretty well ignored by the city and the hospital. Apparently, climate change is not real to these "planners", and there is no need to look at best practices elsewhere. Once again Ottawa settles for way below even second best. And at what a huge environmental cost!

A "Civic" institution hidden behind office buildings and a parking garage. This design does not present a welcoming or open positive image.

This new complex should celebrate Ottawa's healthcare system after the pandemic.

The original “Civic” was a proud community building statement. The stately edifice and graceful stairway provided those that passed by or visited the building in its formative years, a confidence in our public institutions.

The present design is an architectural "bunker" which hides behind berms, flimsy zigzag pathways, a parking garage etc. It is a design which is apologetic about its location.

It is a design which is functionally turned inward having to be constantly explained to the citizens of this city rather than reinforcing a pride in our healthcare system and those that work in it.

The Experimental Farm is protected against development of any kind. Period. The hospital is not permitted. But, even more obviously, the three or more mixed use (condo) buildings are absolutely unnecessary and not permitted.

Please explain why the existing protection is being ignored.
Please explain why any mixed use (condo) buildings are part of this plan.
Please explain why parking for all this mixed use (condo) is part of this plan.

Thanks,

I have been at the Civic many times over the years and I also regularly walk in the Experimental Farm. I am deeply dissatisfied with the plan to use the Experimental Farm in any way. It has been a signature green space of our centre city core for over 100 years, and thus, has trees that are over 100 years old. These trees contribute to the cleansing of the air, providing home for birds and animals, contribute to the beauty of the city. They should not be bull-dozed! Also, 'the bowl' (the area near Birch) is one of the most gorgeous landscaped areas I have ever seen. Many people enjoy this space and, indeed, people from the Civic (staff and patients) come here for their lunch or for a rehabilitative walk. Further, this area is already very busy with Dow's Lake and Preston St. It will be even more busy with the large condos being developed here. Having a hospital right on the corner will drastically change the look and feel of the area. Also, visitors to the area will end up parking where they can, and that will spill into the proposed hospital grounds, making it difficult for patient family members to find available parking. I fear that emergency vehicles will find traffic jams in that area and tourism will be disrupted, as well. I very strongly implore you to reconsider this location. Even if you have answers for all of these things, the Experimental Farm should be considered sacred and left as is. Where is the democracy in this decision-making? Please listen to the people. Many of us have spoken out about this. Please listen.

The NCC, having spent time and money researching possible sites, chose Tunney's Pasture as the most appropriate site for the new Civic Hospital. Not only is there good transportation, but it would serve the fast high density developing areas of Hintonburg and Mechanicsville. The Glebe and surrounding areas are already only 10 minutes by ambulance to the Ottawa General.
Taking away a 42 H. portion of the Farm, cutting down 500+ trees and building a modern hospital with its intense night lighting and ambulance and patient traffic will destroy the peace and serenity of the Arboretum, Farm and Gardens. It will negatively impact people, wildlife and farm animals.
The "Farm" is a defining part of our nation's capital. It is unique to Ottawa; no other capital has one within its boundaries. The Agricultural Experimental Farm belongs to ALL Canadians, not just to the residents of Ottawa and it should not be up to the City of Ottawa to decide to start its destruction and demise.

Why does this website say nothing about the original plan to build at the Tunney's Pasture location? Am I missing something? Why are some comments deleted and why are my other posts not published?