Thought of the Day - July 16 2021 - Vancouver COVID Overflow Facility Closes

The makeshift hospital at the Vancouver Convention Centre (VCC), equipped with COVID-19 overflow beds fifteen months ago, is being shut down. Thankfully without ever taking patients.

The $2M 271-bed site in the exhibition hall of the West Building (equivalent to the total bed capacity of Lions Gate Hospital) was actually intended to care for non-COVID-19 patients, freeing up space in B.C.’s acute care facilities to deal with any surge in hospitalizations. It was one of several alternative-care sites established as the threat of COVID-19 loomed early last year. Another was the brand-new Phase 1 building at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, which was intended to go into service as a mental-health facility last spring. It was also converted for use during the first wave of the pandemic (it is not clear when this was phased out as headlines surrounding the New West hospital have largely focussed on the December power failure, progress in Phase 2 development, as well as the various COVID outbreaks elsewhere in the facility earlier this year.)

Vancouver Coastal Health says the process to close the makeshift VCC hospital, which was costing $88k a month to maintain, should be complete by today. That said, there are plans to support its remobilization if needed (it took only just over a week to set up the facility in April 2021), should Canada see an additional wave (as now being experienced elsewhere - more on this in Sunday's - By the Numbers).

At the VCC, this closure frees up the major space for the convention centre to pursue potential bookings of Step 4 events, as well as film and television production shoots. The Imagine Van Gogh projection art exhibition, running through September 2021, is being held in the West Ballroom, immediately above the exhibition hall. Meanwhile, the ballroom in the East Building of the convention centre, within Canada Place, is still used as one of BC’s largest COVID-19 mass vaccination clinics.

Cheers

Cliff