By Angela Hill

Changes begin at Victoria Hospital

Jun 28, 2011 | 12:05 PM

Demolition of the Crean Villa at Victoria Hospital has begun.

The building is being knocked down to make room for the new provincially-funded family addictions treatment centre.

The first step is safely removing asbestos that is present in many older buildings, said John Piggott, vice-president operations at Prince Albert Parkland Health Region.

“Once the asbestos is removed, then they can start the demolition in earnest for the rest of the building and that will start (in) a week or so,” he said.

RNF Ventures is the company working on the project. They will be responsible for the demolition of the old building and the construction of the new one.

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“At this point and time, I don’t have a good estimate when they will finish the demolition, but they will just go, more or less, smoothly from demolition into excavation and foundations,” Piggott said.

There will be some mental health, inpatient, bed shortages during the changes, said Doug Dahl, communications officer for the region.

While Kingsmere Villa, also at Victoria Hospital was renovated to accommodate more people, there will still be 13 fewer beds.

Changes to Kingsmere Villa had to be made so adult and youth clients could be housed in the same facility. There is a barrier separating the two age groups as well as a separate common area, meeting area and outdoor space, Dahl said.

Residents in Crean Villa were transferred to their new beds in the second week of June — as the date for the move drew closer staff stopped filling vacant beds after people were discharged.

While there is less capacity, there are agreements in place with nearby health regions including Saskatoon and Prairies North, to make sure people in crisis get into care, Dahl said.

There is no proposed sod-turning date yet — it could be towards the end of the summer.

ahill@panow.com