Heather Wright/The Independent

After a decade of planning and waiting, a massive construction on Petrolia’s hospital will start this summer.

Bluewater Health CEO Paula Reaume-Zimmer announced at a Thursday morning news conference Bluewater Health “has actually received the final word on our ability to go to tender” on the project which will see the emergency and diagnostic departments completely redesigned.

The 25-year redevelopment plan was announced in 2016, with Bluewater Health investing money in the infrastructure of the rural hospital – including new heating and cooling, electrical and oxygen lines – while working on the design for the redeveloped emergency department. CEEH’s emergency department was originally built to serve 7,000 people each year; today more than 20,000 people come through the doors each year.

Reaume-Zimmer acknowledged the green light for construction was a long-time in coming. “it doesn’t happen overnight and 10 years is a lot of advocacy, a lot of planning and a lot of commitment by all of the partners who are with us today and so many more in the community,” she told dignitaries filling the historic Corey Room in the original Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital, donated by her husband, Jacob, in 1911.

For generations CEEH served the community. But after Sarnia and Petrolia’s hospitals were merged into one hospital group under Bluewater Health in 2003, the people of Petrolia had to fight to keep the rural hub open. Charlotte’s Task Force organized rallies, went to Queen’s Park and eventually convinced Bluewater Health’s board CEE was an important part of rural health care.

Rosanne Orcutt, one of the members of the task force, was on hand Thursday and called the news “fantastic.

“We’ve been waiting a long, long time for this and the citizens have been very patient about it and they should be really happy today.”

Orcutt says it took “dogged persistence…patient, polite but dogged persistence in order to get something that the community absolutely needs.”

Orcutt is already picturing the day the new emergency room opens. “I intend to have a bunch of balloons in my hand for the people from Charlotte’s Task Force who are no longer with us but who fought for this.”

“There’s a lot of people who worked hard and didn’t get to see the results today.”

Lambton Warden Kevin Marriott said it was “a relief” to hear the news after the long struggle to keep the rural health hub open and the extended planning process for the renovations. “The 10 years is a long time but the fact that we’ve made headway – that’s amazing.”

Petrolia Mayor Brad Loosley welcomed the news. “These renovations will ensure that not only Petrolia, but all of our neighbouring communities throughout Lambton continue to receive exceptional modern health care.”

But Mark Braet, the chair of the CEEH Foundation, added “while there is a major step forward, it is not by any means the finish line. This project depends on community support.”

The community will have to contribute about $3 million to help furnish and pay for the renovations.

Braet says $1.2 million has already been raised.

“Community fundraising is not just helpful, it’s essential to ensuring this redevelopment delivers what our patients staff and families need,” he said.

Kathy Alexander, the executive director of the Bluewater Health Foundation agreed. “Community generosity is a powerful force and when donors and volunteers invest in their hospital, they help insure projects like this are shaped by the needs of the people they serve.”

Reaume-Zimmer says the final details of the tender are being worked out in the next four to six weeks. After 90 days, Bluewater Health will evaluate the proposals from builders and choose a company to complete the work.

She expects construction will start in late summer or early fall.

Reaume-Zimmer says it will require a lot of coordination to keep the emergency department running during nearly two years of construction. Patients, she says are “going to see a lot of boarding up around the areas that they’re coming into and a lot of redirection…The expectation is that it is going to be a construction zone. We’re going to try very hard to make sure that it has the least impact on our patient care as possible.”

While the CEO did not say exactly what the redevelopment is expected to cost, she says it falls under the Ministry of Health’s Captial Projects Under $20 million category.

Artist renderings of the new CEEH Emergency Department