The palliative care unit will remain at the old facility for the time being.
Pat and the Elephant vans made continous round trips between the two facilities all day Sunday as patients were carefully moved. One staff member said the move was hard on some of the patients who were fearful of the unknown while others were happy to leave the crumbling old building behind.
The 81-year-old building began life as a hospital, but was turned into the health care facility that it is today when the Queen Elizabeth Hospital opened.
The move Sunday meant that the 120 residents had to be carefully removed from the old building and put into a van and taken to the Maypoint Road. Approximately 225 staff are also making the transfer. Whle the patients were being taken care of, large moving trucks were removing equipment that will also go to the new facility.
The 120 residents and staff made the co-ordinated move Sunday
In an earlier intervierw with The Guardian, Andrew MacDougall, administrator of the Prince Edward Home, said the future of the old place remains unknown except to remain the home of palliative care patients until a new facility opens.
He described the new facility as being tailor-made for a mix of residents that will include those with dementia, the long-term care population, and others coming for restorative care.
The new facility is divided into five “neighbourhoods’’ which each have a spacious spa with tub and shower room. Each neighbourhood contains two adjoining “households’’. There will be 12 residents per household, each with their own room that has their own bathroom.
