Significant funding for repairs to 50-year-old infrastructure at Petrolia's hospital is needed before major renovations can proceed.
Bluewater Health CEO Mike Lapaine said they've made a special request for $5 million from Ontario's health ministry for critical mechanical and electrical improvements.
He said that work must be done before they proceed with an $8.8 million overhaul of the emergency department at Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital.
"What's urgently required in the Petrolia site is a lot of infrastructure, or what we would call HVAC system replacement," he said. "The province has another pool of money called the Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund that deals with infrastructure issues in hospitals, so we've asked for an exceptional circumstances grant to get some of the work done prior to doing the overall redevelopment."
Multi-phased redevelopment plans include the eventual construction of a new emergency department with the old one being repurposed for ambulatory care, as well as additional space for diagnostic imaging, and a new hospital entrance.
Lapaine said if the exceptional circumstances funding is approved, repair work will begin this fall.
If it's denied by the province, he said the money would have to come from a $7.5 million provincial capital grant the hospital received in 2017.