By Karin Yeske

Construction begins on Children’s Hospital of Saskatchewan

Sep 25, 2014 | 4:33 PM

It’s an thrilling day for the Camboia family as construction begins on the Children’s Hospital of Saskatchewan.

Kimberley Camboia is one of many parents who frequents hospitals because of their children. Camboia’s five-year-old daughter Aleina has cystic fibrosis.

“Happy dance, happy dance, happy dance. It’s so exciting,” Camboia said, who helped create the design for the hospital.

Aleina brings her doctor backpack to appointments and hospital visits to make the experience more fun.

“That’s what this Children’s Hospital does. It takes.—it almost seems like it is that special playground that you get to go to rather than going to the hospital, going to the doctor,” Camboia explained.

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“The Children’s Hospital is kind of like the special backpack that takes that fear out of it.”

The hospital will serve kids, teenagers, mothers and pregnant women. It’s new emergency department will service kids and adults for both the Children’s Hospital and the Royal University Hospital.

The five-floor design includes an outdoor play space, theatre in the lobby, all private patient and exam rooms, three maternal operating rooms, private neonatal intensive care rooms, pediatric surgery suites, dedicated space for children dealing with cancer to get chemotherapy, pediatric sleep lab, family spaces, area for siblings and spiritual space.

“This place is going to change lives,” Brynn Boback-Lane, president and CEO of the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan said at the official ground-breaking ceremony.

The foundation has hosted over 600 fundraising events in 2014 alone.

“For years you have all believed. Saskatchewan has shown boundless support. From all over the province, the contributions that you have made give us the reason to believe that we are truly one big, caring community,” Boback-Lane said.

The largest donors, Les and Irene Dube, contributed $6.5 million to the cause. At the ceremony, Les explained with Irene by his side, that their twin great grandsons had needed specialized treatment in Calgary and they wish the same treatment for families in Saskatchewan.

Premier Brad Wall said $200 million taxpayers’ dollars had been set aside for the hospital in the beginning. However, it became apparent 24 inpatient beds and $20 million in additional provincial funding was needed.

“The case was made that we better not make this brand new hospital too small,” he said

A three-tier LEAN process was which received the input from families and front-line workers. Wall said the LEAN process saved them millions of dollars.

The facility will also be the key to attract specialized physicians to the province, he added.

“This will be the anchor for a provincewide pediatrics strategy that provide better care for our kids,” Wall said. 

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