ORILLIA’S HOSPITAL MOVING, PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
ORILLIA — Ten months after announcing it will be moving out of the downtown to another site, Orillia’s Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSM) is seeking input on that new future location.
The current location would be re-purposed for community use, they say.
A public survey to help determine what criteria should be utilized to determine the site in Orillia is now open.
The survey asks respondents to assess 10 possible criteria on a scale from very important to not important at all, with an opportunity to suggest other criteria or provide additional comments, says a release Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019.
It says the results will be instrumental in setting the final site selection criteria later this year.
“Before we entertain any potential sites, we need to know what’s most important to the communities we serve,” said Carmine Stumpo, president and CEO.
“By having the community weigh in on the criteria, we gain a better understanding of how to assess sites from their perspective.”
Among the draft criteria included in the survey, respondents are asked to indicate the importance of items such as available parking, public transit, proximity to other health services and the capacity to create additional green space or walking trails on site.
The survey will run through until Friday, September 27th and can be accessed online at www.osmh.on.ca or www.orilliafuturehospital.ca or in paper format available at the Volunteer Desk in the main lobby of the hospital or by special request to OSMH Community Relations.
Background:
The Future Hospital project, initiated in 2016, is a multi-year planning exercise to identify the hospital’s long-term infrastructure. The decision to plan towards construction of a new hospital on a different site, while re-purposing the existing hospital to meet community needs, was made in late November 2018, following a thorough examination of potential options and with extensive community engagement.
Earlier this year (2019), the hospital submitted a Stage One planning submission that is currently under review by the Ministry of Health.
For more information, contact: Terry Dyni, director of community relations, 705-327-9179.
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