The senior vice-president of Sudbury Regional Hospital said he's “feeling very confident” that the transfer of hundreds of patients from the Memorial and St. Joseph's hospital sites over the next couple of months will be without incident.

“We have a good plan, we've worked hard on that plan for two years, and we've got great support from our staff. They're excited about the move, and they want to help,” said Joe Pilon, who spoke to Northern Life about the issue Jan. 12 after the hospital's board of directors meeting.

Pilon said about 100 patients will be transferred from the Memorial site to one-site hospital, located on the Laurentian hospital site, on Jan. 31.

After that, about 130 alternate level of care (ALC) patients will be transferred to the Memorial site in mid-February.

The Memorial site will receive minor renovations to cater to ALC patients. The province is paying to care for these patients at the Memorial site for one year.

About 250 patients from the St. Joseph's site will be transferred to the one-site hospital at the end of March.

Pilon said the hospital has received advice on co-ordinating all of these transfers from a private consulting firm called Health Care Relocations, which has expertise in relocating patients.