MEDIA RELEASE
November 17, 2015
For Immediate Release
STEGH achieves financial close on Our Great Expansion
Work now underway on two year redevelopment project
(St. Thomas, ON) - The level of excitement is palpable at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital
(STEGH) as groundbreaking on Our Great Expansion has occurred!
“Our official groundbreaking event today is an exciting time and the start of a new era for
STEGH as we embark on this two year construction process,” states Melanie Taylor, Chair,
Board of Governors.
The project involves a three-storey addition to the northwest side of the current hospital building.
The new addition will be approximately 106,000 square feet and will include:
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a new emergency department;
surgical suite;
medical devices reprocessing department;
acute mental health unit with 15 inpatient beds and ambulatory services; and
ambulance garage.
“We know the end result will be a hospital that meets the needs of our community and our
providers and will help us to continue to deliver safe, quality, and compassionate care ,” states
Paul Collins, President and CEO, adding, “We are committed to keeping our community fully
informed throughout our Redevelopment Project.”
To coincide with today’s groundbreaking, STEGH also launched a newly designed and
refreshed website and introduced an electronic newsletter to keep our community informed.
Infrastructure Ontario announced on Nov. 12 that it had awarded a contract to EllisDon
Corporation to build and finance STEGH’s redevelopment and expansion project. At the peak of
construction, there will be approximately 125 workers on-site. The EllisDon Corporation
estimates that approximately 50 per cent of the labour for STEGH project will come from the
London and St. Thomas area.
The Ontario Government is investing $88.2 million towards this project which has a total cost of
$98.3 million. STEGH is responsible to provide a local share totaling approximately 10% of the
total cost as well as covering expenses related to equipment.
“We have a fundraising target of $16 million to cover local share and all equipment related
costs,” says Paul Jenkins, STEGH Foundation Executive Director. “We are thrilled to be able to
confirm that we have already surpassed $13 million in paid or pledged donations and I am
confident we will reach our goal.”
STEGH has created an email address for questions, concerns and inquiries related to the
redevelopment project. Please direct to: [email protected]
“Today’s event was 17 years in the making,” adds Collins. “That is why it was so important to us
to have past board members, board chairs, hospital and community leaders, and, of course, our
staff and physicians in attendance today, as they all had a role in achieving today’s milestone.”
-30For more information, contact:
Nancy Lawrence, Strategic Communications and Stakeholder Relations, STEGH
T: 519-631-2030, ext. 2184 E: [email protected]
Website: www.stegh.on.ca