Ontario invests in UHN’s new $1B Toronto Western Hospital patient tower

The Government of Ontario announced it is investing $794 million for the University Health Network’s (UHN) new state-of-the-art patient tower at Toronto Western Hospital. The hospital will add more beds and operating rooms, to connect more families to convenient care, closer to home.

“This new tower will help provide modern and high-quality care to the more than 450,000 people who visit Toronto Western Hospital each year,” said Premier Doug Ford. “In Toronto and right across the province, our government is making historic investments for a stronger health care system, with more doctors and nurses, more beds and shorter wait times. We’re bringing convenient care closer to home for more people.”

Once complete in 2028, the new 15-storey tower, located on the current Toronto Western Hospital campus on Bathurst Street in downtown Toronto, will add:

• 82 patient beds, including new critical care beds;
• 20 state-of-the-art operating rooms, including three new image-guided operating rooms for complex neurosurgical and spinal procedures; and
• New single patient rooms that are also strategically designed to enhance the hospital’s infection control abilities to easily respond to future public health outbreaks.

“UHN’s Toronto Western Hospital has served Toronto and, increasingly, the province for more than 100 years. Our surgical teams perform some of the most advanced surgical procedures to treat the most complex patients. We’re incredibly grateful to the Government of Ontario for this remarkable investment which will help UHN enhance our pioneering work particularly in caring for complex neurological and orthopedic cases from across the province,” said Dr. Kevin Smith, president and CEO, University Health Network.

With this significant investment, UHN will be able to increase the number of surgeries completed by more than 20 per cent over the next 10 years, to provide high-quality care to more people and reduce surgical backlogs. The tower also includes modern digital infrastructure and a more comfortable space for family members and other visitors.

The tower’s integrated design is driven under the leadership of DIALOG, the prime architecture and design consultant, and incorporates insights from diverse stakeholders, including surgeons, nurses, patients, clinical managers, UHN Environmental Services, the Indigenous Health Program, digital infrastructure teams, pharmacists, and UHN Infection Prevention and Control, the Laboratory Medicine Program and medical imaging specialists.

“The new University Health Network patient and surgical tower at Toronto Western Hospital is just one part of our plan to ensure patients can access world class, convenient care, for years to come,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

Featured image:  Dr. Kevin Smith, UHN President & CEO. (UHN Photos)