[Northern Light]

I can't comment on the current MOH policies for hospital heliports, but past practices have included several urban hospitals.

In my pre retirement career I was the EMS helicopter operations advisor for the planning and implementation of hospital heliports (in the GTA - St. Michaels rooftop, Sunnybrook rooftop, Markham Stouffville, Credit Valley).

I would certainly defer to your expertise. Though I would note, your list of 4, plus Sick Kids, does mean 3/5 facilities were for Regional Trauma Centres.

I certainly think there is a case for another in the GTA irrespective of helipad construction as to my knowledge we haven't built a new Regional Trauma program in the GTA in decades.

Hospital heliports such as Ajax Pickering, Markham Stouffville and Credit Valley are approximately the same distance to Toronto as the Mississauga Hospital and their heliports were funded many years ago.

Perhaps you would know; but looking at the 2 non-trauma centre locations, I wonder if proximity to airports was a consideration at all, thinking of Pearson and Buttonville?

My EMS flight experience with Ajax, Markham and Credit Valley was the frequent use of their heliports to transport critical patients from their hospitals to trauma centres in Toronto. The only inbound use was for HSC's Neonatal Transport Team who were then subsequently flown outbound with the newborn.

Certainly the majority of GTA hospitals do not have helipads so far as I'm aware, so I will come back to the issue of what criteria the MoH would be using for deciding who gets one.

As @drum118 pointed out, being located on the roof of the tallest building in the area with approach departure from almost 360-degrees is rare and absolutely perfect for flight operations.

The costs for a rooftop hospital heliport if included in the pre construction design should be less than $1m.

Not my world, but for something that can make a critical difference to patient outcomes, $1m sounds like a budget rounding error for a 24 story building.

I'm glad to see the topic being discussed.

Agree with all of the above.

*****

Hmmmm, quick scan of who has what:

Around the GTHA:

Hamilton Health Sciences - McMaster
Oakville Trafalger Memorial
Milton
Georgetown
Credit Valley in Mississauga,
Royal Victoria in Barrie
Markham Stouffville,
Uxbridge
Lakeridge - Ajax/Pickering

Interesting to see which sites have this service.

Further inquiry also led me to understand that Southlake in Newmarket was supposed to get one, but the neighbours stifled it.

 

[drum118]

I can't comment on the current MOH policies for hospital heliports, but past practices have included several urban hospitals.

In my pre retirement career I was the EMS helicopter operations advisor for the planning and implementation of hospital heliports (in the GTA - St. Michaels rooftop, Sunnybrook rooftop, Markham Stouffville, Credit Valley).

Hospital heliports such as Ajax Pickering, Markham Stouffville and Credit Valley are approximately the same distance to Toronto as the Mississauga Hospital and their heliports were funded many years ago.

My EMS flight experience with Ajax, Markham and Credit Valley was the frequent use of their heliports to transport critical patients from their hospitals to trauma centres in Toronto. The only inbound use was for HSC's Neonatal Transport Team who were then subsequently flown outbound with the newborn.

As @drum118 pointed out, being located on the roof of the tallest building in the area with approach departure from almost 360-degrees is rare and absolutely perfect for flight operations.

The costs for a rooftop hospital heliport if included in the pre construction design should be less than $1m.

Not my world, but for something that can make a critical difference to patient outcomes, $1m sounds like a budget rounding error for a 24 story building.

I'm glad to see the topic being discussed.

In many cases, time is essential to the patient if they live or die with the roof offering the best solution for that person living.

The time to off load and get them to OR or Trauma unit is way faster from the roof pad than a pad near the hospital where the person has to put into an ambulance and then off loaded to get to X.

Regardless if it is $1 million or $5 million, it worth less than a person life considering how many will use that pad over time. Roof top pad can be on a steel structure or concrete roof slab that will have very structural support to the main structure other than reinforcement of the roof itself. In this case, concrete is the best option.

One flew over my place a day ago with the tallest in the area at 40 story with a 50 floor being built.

 

[TwinHuey]

I would certainly defer to your expertise. Though I would note, your list of 4, plus Sick Kids, does mean 3/5 facilities were for Regional Trauma Centres.

I certainly think there is a case for another in the GTA irrespective of helipad construction as to my knowledge we haven't built a new Regional Trauma program in the GTA in decades.



Perhaps you would know; but looking at the 2 non-trauma centre locations, I wonder if proximity to airports was a consideration at all, thinking of Pearson and Buttonville?



Certainly the majority of GTA hospitals do not have helipads so far as I'm aware, so I will come back to the issue of what criteria the MoH would be using for deciding who gets one.



Agree with all of the above.

*****

Hmmmm, quick scan of who has what:

Around the GTHA:

Hamilton Health Sciences - McMaster
Oakville Trafalger Memorial
Milton
Georgetown
Credit Valley in Mississauga,
Royal Victoria in Barrie
Markham Stouffville,
Uxbridge
Lakeridge - Ajax/Pickering

Interesting to see which sites have this service.

Further inquiry also led me to understand that Southlake in Newmarket was supposed to get one, but the neighbours stifled it.

I worked on approximately 40 hospital heliports in Ontario and Nova Scotia. I made reference to the 4 as they are locations UT members might relate to.

You ask a good question, but when I was involved, the planning for hospital heliport locations had nothing to do with proximity to airports. It was solely based upon a site being within the helicopter catchment area, meeting the heliport criteria and the funding. Interesting to note that some heliports did not rely on the MOH and were funded by donation campaigns run by local community service clubs.

GTA locations such as East General / Michael Garron and North York General were not considered due to their close proximity to the trauma centres. I do remember landing in the parking lot of Scarborough General once to pick up a trauma patient destined for HSC (I recall this because our insurer paid to replace the rear spoiler on a parked car that the rotor downwash ripped off...ooops). Thankfully we stopped the higher risk operation of landing in unprepared hospital parking lots early on in the program.

I was the contact for noise complaints. When I explained that we do our best to minimize disrupting the neighbourhood, our flight crews abide by 'Fly Neighbourly' flight profiles and that we are only flying for the purposes of transporting critical patients, the callers were always understanding and polite. However, this was for heliports already established. Neighbours can kick up a fuss when they hear one is planned for the hospital next door. Maybe that's what happened at Southlake.

As usual @Northern Light you do incredible research and have an excellent grasp of the situation.

If a rooftop heliport is not in the current plan for this new hospital, my hope is that our discussions here on UT plant the seed to get one built.

 

[Northern Light]

Neighbours can kick up a fuss when they hear one is planned for the hospital next door. Maybe that's what happened at Southlake.

This is my understanding. There's also some sort of controversy around a helipad at Bomanville, but I couldn't quite sort out whether this was temporary/recent or the other details, and there is only so much time for rabbit holes.

As usual @Northern Light you do incredible research and have an excellent grasp of the situation.

Ty for the compliment, its much appreciated. I do my best.

Let me also thank you for your insight on this subject, much as with your excellent drone work and photography, it often lends a unique insight that would not otherwise be found here at UT.

If a rooftop heliport is not in the current plan for this new hospital, my hope is that our discussions here on UT plant the seed to get one built.

100% agreed.

 

[Northern Light]

A 10M donation to the Trillium Health's Diagnostic Imaging program across all 3 locations was announced last week and will impact this site materially.

$10 million donation will reduce MRI wait times at Mississauga's huge new hospital | insauga

A $10 million donation to Mississauga’s hospital network is expected to deliver cutting-edge diagnostic imaging facilities that, among other benefits, will reduce wait times for MRIs at the city’s massive new hospital when it opens to patients. The eight-figure gift comes from an Etobicoke...

www.insauga.com

From the above:

 

[drum118]

Feb 8
More up on my site

By the look of things, the Camilla Care building is now closed as the windows are boarded up for the ground floor and see no lights on.

Various offices are now moving out of the office building.

The parking structure is fully erected now. I was able to get a close look on the north side fully. By the looks of brackets on the northside wall, it is set up for future expansion. All the windows around future expansion area has vertical bars in them.