The Vancouver Island Health Authority has put up a "for sale" sign on Oak Bay Lodge and Mount Tolmie Hospital, both long-term care facilities.

The health authority has issued a request for proposals to build and operate a replacement facility. The deadline for proposals is Jan. 13.

Any proposal must include 325 to 400 new beds and up to 100 assisted-living spaces, supportive housing, housing for those with dementia and other community services.

Existing beds in the two hospitals total 320 -- 247 at Oak Bay Lodge and 73 at Mount Tolmie.

Marguerite Rowe, executive director for continuing health services, said the buildings are both in need of renovations and have structural problems. Both need to be replaced.

Rowe said she can't say what will happen to the existing buildings or how they will be operated until a proposal has been selected.

But she said residents may be able to remain at both sites for several years while replacements are being constructed.

Meanwhile, critics like Glen Lamont say putting the facilities up for sale is a mistake, even if the buildings need to be upgraded. "To me that's a sad way of doing it," said Lamont.

He said his mother, Muriel, spent four years in Oak Bay Lodge before she died earlier this month at the age of 99 with advanced dementia.

Lamont said his mother received the best of care, and family members were constantly informed of her condition.

"All I can say it was excellent," he said. "Everything about it was good."

Pat Crofton, the last chairman of the volunteer Oak Bay Lodge Society, the group that ran Oak Bay Lodge until it was taken over by the health authority, noted you can keep putting money into an aging facility to keep it going, but not forever.

rwatts@tc.canwest.com