The new hospital in Picton took another step forward on Tuesday, in a move that also indicates that the current building will not be reused.

On Tuesday, in a meeting held in Quinte West council chambers in Trenton, QHC board members approved the submission of the stage 1 proposal for the Prince Edward County Memorial Redevelopment Project.

It included a very detailed overview of the options that were on the table, and the scoring system that led to the recommendation.

The preferred, or "Wraparound Approach" will involve a completely new build on some land adjacent to the current hospital.

It minimizes disruption during the construction period, provides the best level of clinical and cost efficiency, and also allows for future expansion.

The base capital cost of the new hospital will be just over 65-million dollars (estimate). They will have just over 11 million in contingency allowances.

The overall cost for 35 years (including those factors) is an estimated 82-million dollars.

Renovations to the existing site were considered, but that plan was the lowest-scoring of all the options examined.

There would also be significant disruption during the construction phase (if they renovated the current site), and some of the new regulations (including hall size) would expand the scope of the job resulting in a significantly longer building period.

The plan is now being sent to the LHIN and then on to the Ministry of Health.