LIONS Gate Hospital's planned psychiatric facility took a step closer to reality Tuesday with the announcement of a $4-million gift from a West Vancouver philanthropist.
Djavad Mowafaghian, the founder of a charitable organization that gives to numerous local causes, will be making the donation to the hospital's planned HOpe Centre, a new 150,000-square-foot treatment and education complex slated for the corner of 13th Street and St. Andrews Avenue.
Speaking at a morning press conference, Mowafaghian said the gift was intended as a gesture of gratitude to the Lions Gate staff who helped him when he had a stroke last year. "A group of knowledgeable physicians and a group of beautiful angels who work here as nurses provided me with the best care possible on this planet," he said. "I'm here today to give them my long-overdue appreciation and many thanks from my heart."
The contribution brings the total raised from private donors to $22.5 million, putting the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation within striking distance of its $25-million fundraising goal for the project. Mowafaghian's portion will go specifically toward the UBC Medical Education Centre, a teaching facility that will be housed in the new building along with
mental health and ambulance services.
"This is a remarkable gift and an important milestone," said Dr. Ross MacGillivray, vice-dean of academic affairs for the UBC Faculty of Medicine. "I promise we will make good use of it."
The new $62-million facility will replace the hospital's 82-year-old Activation building, a dilapidated mental health facility that patients have described as cramped and foul-smelling, where as many as 15 people share a single toilet.
The new four-storey building will be home to 26 private inpatient rooms - each with its own bathroom - along with nine ambulance bays and enough educational capacity to teach 100 medical students and residents a month.
The centre takes its name from Greta and Robert H. N. Ho, who kicked off the LGH Foundation's fundraising drive in May with a $10-million gift, billed by the organization as the largest private donation ever to a North Shore institution.
The provincial government has pledged to contribute the remaining $37 million needed to build the facility.
Foundation representatives made the announcement to a small crowd of supporters and local dignitaries outside LGH's 69-year-old Annex - "one of the hospital's least attractive buildings," in the words of chairman Clark Quintin - which will be torn down to make way for the centre. The setting was selected to underscore the improvement, he noted.
The facility is slated to open at the end of 2013.
