Ontario spent nearly $800 million on a new tower at Toronto West Hospital

Ontario will spend nearly $800 million on a new hospital tower in Toronto.

The new 15-storey tower at Toronto's University Health Network (UHN) West Hospital will have 82 patient beds and 20 operating rooms, the province announced Tuesday.

The new facility, scheduled to be built by 2028, will increase surgical capacity by 20 percent, he said.

“This new tower will help provide modern and high-quality care to the more than 450,000 people who visit Toronto Western Hospital each year,” Premier Doug Ford said in a press release Tuesday.

“In Toronto and across the province, our government is making historic investments to strengthen our health care system with more doctors and nurses, more beds and shorter wait times. We're bringing care closer to home for more people.”

UHN President Kevin Smith said the investment will enhance Toronto West's ongoing work in complex neurological and orthopedic cases.

“UHN Toronto West Hospital has served Toronto and increasingly the province for more than 100 years,” he said in a press release.

“Our surgical teams perform the most advanced surgical procedures to treat the most complex patients.”

The province is investing $794 million in the project after previously providing a $34 million planning grant.