June 10: A new geriatric home-hospital complex for the Little Sisters of the Poor will be built on a 3-acre site at Brockville at a cost in excess of $2 million.
The 90-bed complex will replace the present building at Andersons Bay, which was built in 1907 and has now reached the end of its useful life as a home for the elderly.
A Government subsidy of more than $1 million means the Little Sisters will have to find about $1 million themselves.
At present about $110,000 is held in a building fund and plans are in hand for an intensive fundraising campaign.
TENDERS SOON
The new complex should take about two years to complete and tenders will be called in about three months. The present premises will remain in use for about two and a half years and no decision has been made on their future.
Government approval of the subsidy gave recognition of the fact that the order had been providing hospital care for many years now, Mr J.J. O'Dea, a spokesman for the Little Sisters, said yesterday when he unveiled the plans.
The home, as constituted at present, is not recognised as providing hospital services.
Originally building was to take place on the present site and plans were begun on that basis.
A single-storeyed construction could not be used and building ordinances required expensive designs.
A long period of negotiation with the Health Department and the Government for a new building project then began until the Government undertook to assist with the building of a home-hospital complex.
To take advantage of lower building costs it was decided that single storey construction was essential and a level site was needed.
Finally, the Brockville site opposite the playground, bus terminus, shopping centre and Post Office was secured.
At the time it was built the present home was quite an advanced design but still largely a nineteenth century concept. With tremendous advances in the past 50 years, the present building is now badly outdated.
Today's emphasis in the accommodation needs of the aged was to keep them in home and community surroundings as long as possible until residential care became necessary.
As far as possible the institutional atmosphere is avoided and a home-like environment created.
The Brockville site allows for the construction of the villa type single-storeyed accommodation for 50 and the single-storey hospital block will provide 40 beds.
In the hospital section there are eight four-bed wards and eight single rooms. These will be serviced from rooms in the centre.
VILLA BLOCKS
In the home section there will be two villa blocks, each containing 25 single rooms, each of them grouped in sections joined by short corridors.
Also in each villa will be a day room, sunroom space, a lounge and snack servery. One villa would include rooms for hairdressing, chiropody and a library.
A day centre for partly dependent and dependent elderly residents and non-residents will also be provided.
A large day occupational therapy room adjoins a day care centre and through the new facilities the Sisters hope to extend their work for the partly dependent elderly.
The only two-storeyed section is the resident staff block, centrally placed, as is the chapel for both residents and staff.