The University of California, San Francisco began construction on a $1.5 billion children’s hospital that will include the city’s first inpatient unit for pediatric behavioral care, the San Francisco Examiner reported June 9.
The UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland is set to open in 2030. It will have 20 inpatient care beds for youth struggling with behavioral and mental health conditions.
The city currently has no such facility for children and there are few suitable facilities in the Bay Area, Chuan Lee, MD, a UCSF child psychiatrist, told the news outlet. This has meant that children needing care have been left in emergency departments for more than 24 hours while social workers work to find suitable beds across the state, said Dr. Lee.
