[StBernard] Final hurdle cleared for new St. Bernard Hospital

[Westley Annis]

Final hurdle cleared for new St. Bernard Hospital
  Reported by: Allison Braxton, Reporter 
Pretty soon, when Saint Bernard Parish residents drive down East Judge Perez
drive they'll see lots of construction. 
A new 70-million dollar hospital is set to replace the old Chalmette Medical
Center. 

At this primary care clinic patients stream in looking for help. 

Shirley Britton and her family rushed her brother here because the nearest
hospital is 45-minutes away. 

Shirley Britton replies "He was dizzy he was feeling like he was going to
pass out or something and we just rushed him up here. His pressure went up."

Angela Estophinal "It's just hard when you gotta come here and the lines
here you just wait forever."

The wait for critical medical care in Saint Bernard will soon speed up.

On Friday, state officials gave the green light for the the hospital service
district to begin phase one of the new St. Bernard Parish Hospital
construction plan.

First thing Monday morning, parish officials will place advertisements
across the metro for contractors to bid on "site work" at this vacant tract
of land that was donated by the Meraux Foundation. 

Contractors will have 25-days to bid on the 109-thousand square foot state
of the art facility.

Wayne Landry says " The initial phase is a two million dollar phase to do
all the site preparation raising it up to the height that we need to get to
the basic flood elevation heights and then at that point we'll go and select
a general contractor to his abilities to actually build a hospital at that
prepared site." 

Once completed the St. Bernard Parish hospital will provide 40-inpatient
beds, eight ICU beds and emergency services. 

Wayne Landry says "It's a three floor facility. It will provide all medical
surgical care to all the residents.In about forty days you'll see equipment
out here starting to grub the land which is achieving a good compaction at a
flood elevation according to FEMA standards look forward to turning those
shovels over into the ground." 

Once construction begins on the new Saint Bernard Hospital it should take
two years to be completed.