Dr. Trevor Janz was there 20 years ago when the doors closed on Mount St. Francis.
The former Nelson hospital in the city's Fairview neighbourhood operated from the 1940s to 2005, when it was shut down and left derelict. Janz was the facility's house physician at the time of its closure.
"It was a lovely building with lovely, caring staff," said Janz. "It was an institution in this place. It had been here for a long time and it served the community really, really well."
The legacy of Mount St. Francis was invoked often during a ceremony Sept. 4 to open the new Nelson Community Health Campus. The $40-million complex, built on the grounds of the former hospital, includes a 75-bed long-term care facility and a community centre that will house a variety of different health-care services.
Janz has also returned to the site, this time as medical director for long-term care.
“I’m delighted to see a campus of care on this land. What a wonderful idea to gather health services in one place so that people can come. A campus of care is a really good idea to cluster services to wrap around people.”
Fairview Gardens, the campus' long-term care facility, is split up into sections of rooms that each house 14-16 residents. Private rooms each have their own washrooms, and each section has dedicated dining and activity spaces as well as outdoor courtyards. Kootenay Boundary Aboriginal Services Society Collaborative was also consulted to provide culturally safe care and signage for Indigenous residents.
Janz said Fairview Gardens will primarily serve seniors who are no longer able to manage in their own homes, have complex medical needs, and are typically entering their final 12-18 months of life. Interior Health said in a statement that residents will begin to move in this month.
The building also has a unit set aside for people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who have neuromuscular diseases, mental-health illnesses or substance-use disorders, which Janz said is unique for the region.
“This is the first time that we're going to have all those people in a place where they'll be able to be with their peers and be supported in an environment with the supports they need.”
The campus' other building, the Nelson Community Health Services Centre, opened Aug. 12. It offers space for numerous services that include early childhood development, home health, nurse practitioners, public health, and substance-use counselling and treatment.
Kootenay-Central MLA Brittny Anderson said the new campus will fulfill health-care needs for current and future generations.
“This is a place for our entire community and there's going to be people who we all love who are going to be lucky enough to get to old age and to be in this facility and being taken care of incredible people like Dr. Janz. It is so meaningful to be able to open this.”
It also took many years of lobbying, several partnerships and nearly four years of construction to complete.
The city first requested the provincial government make upgrades to Mount St. Francis, or replace it entirely, in 1999.
But it wasn't until 2020 that Interior Health announced it would tear down the empty hospital and replace it with a new health campus. Demolition of the site began in October 2021 and construction started in 2022.
The campus is co-owned by Columbia Basin Trust and Golden Life Management, a private company that runs retirement developments and care facilities. Interior Health is leasing and operating the buildings at an estimated annual cost of $7.5 million.
Interior Health said in a statement the estimated capital cost to make the buildings operational for health-care services is approximately $20.6 million, of which $4.8 million was provided by the West Kootenay-Boundary Regional Hospital District.
Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma was in Nelson for the opening of the campus. She said the B.C. NDP will consider the ways in which the project came together might be emulated elsewhere in the province.
“There might be a different combination of partnerships, but the people of Nelson here have demonstrated what can be done when different organizations work together and it's really inspiring.”
The opening of the campus, however, comes at a cost for the city's two other long-term care facilities.
Interior Health-owned Nelson Jubilee Manor offers 39 publicly funded beds, while the privately operated Mountain Lake Seniors’ Community has 85 publicly funded and seven privately financed beds.
Janz said the new campus is fully staffed (Interior Health has not yet said how many people are working there), but that many positions were filled at the expense of Jubilee Manor and Mountain Lake.
Jubilee Manor remains operational and has some Interior Health employees working shifts there as well as at the campus, but Janz said the city is in dire need of more health-care workers.
“This building’s got lots and we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel everywhere else. We’re desperate for nurses, care aids, long-term practical nurses.”
Yet the new campus should still be considered a source of civic pride, according to Mayor Janice Morrison, who had family and personal connections to Mount St. Francis.
Her father donated to the construction of the old hospital and remained a donor after it was completed. Morrison's grandmother spent the last years of her life at Mount St. Francis, and Morrison herself worked there as a physical therapist until its closure.
The long-awaited return of health care to the historic site drew tears from Morrison at the opening.
“It is an emotional day for me to be able to be here and finally see this come to fruition.”
