North Suffolk continues to grow more and more, and there’s hardly any better evidence of that than the growth in health care.

Bon Secours announced this week that it plans to build a hospital in North Suffolk, where it already has a freestanding emergency room and a variety of other medical offices all known as the Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View.

But inpatient hospital care has been nonexistent in the growing North Suffolk area. Those residents have to travel to Sentara Obici on Godwin Boulevard, or to someplace in Portsmouth, Chesapeake or perhaps even farther to get needed services.

It’s only a 15-minute drive from Harbour View to Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth, but when you’re on your way to the hospital for care, or traveling there every day to see a loved one, that can seem like an eternity.

Health system officials say they plan to move up to 25 beds from Maryview to the new hospital. Details are short right now — more will be revealed when Bon Secours files its Certificate of Public Need request with the state next month — but one thing that is sure is that the growing population in that area is the reason for this move.

“Since our opening in 1999, we have continually responded to the growing community need for health care services by bringing new outpatient services and attracting new physician groups to Bon Secours Harbour View,” Toni Ardabell, chief executive officer for Bon Secours Virginia Health System, stated in a press release on Monday. “As the population has grown, the next logical step is to bring inpatient care to the campus.”

The new hospital, once it’s built, will be a benefit not only to North Suffolk residents but also to thousands of visitors, businesspeople and passers-through every year, some of whom will become sick or injured on their journey and in need of medical care. The hospital itself will also attract more economic opportunity for Suffolk in terms of jobs.

We applaud this opportunity. It will be a few years until the project is completed, but we already look forward to seeing the results.