Latest on Burnaby Hospital: What's being added and how much it's expected to cost

British Columbia's premier joined the provincial health minister in Burnaby Monday for an update on an anticipated redevelopment with a billion-dollar price tag.

John Horgan was in the city to announce the start of construction on the Burnaby Hospital project that is expected to cost more than $1.3 billion.

It's among the province's largest health-care investments, he said, and is the first major upgrade to the site in four decades. Patients will see two new towers added, with new units and a total of six more operating rooms.

The expansion will bring the Burnaby Hospital to nearly 400 beds, some of which will be single-patient rooms with private bathrooms. It will also result in a larger emergency department and a brand new cancer treatment centre, the Health Ministry said.

Part of the expansion is a new maternity unit, and the upgrades also include a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and an in-patient unit with negative pressure rooms and outbreak zones to allow for isolation of patients when needed.

There will be a new mental-health and substance-use in-patient care area, which includes space for patients in crisis, at risk or in severe distress, the Health Ministry said.

The expansion is being done in phases, the first of which is explained in a video from Fraser Health embedded below.

The Burnaby Hospital has been open since 1952.

The expansion comes as residents of more rural cities worry about weekend ward closures.

Health Minister Adrian Dix said B.C. experienced 16,000 absences among health workers last week, and while there have been thousands of new hires in the last few years, patients are still being told to seek help in locations other than their nearest hospital.

Among those are patients of hospitals in Clearwater and Port McNeill, both of which were forced to close emergency departments  last weekend.