Construction of the Learning Development Centre at the hospital is on budget and on time to open next spring.
The $10 million project at University Hospital of Northern BC is where students in the Northern Medical Program will have their practical training augmented with a lecture hall, interactive screens for distance learning, a library, classroom spaces and other features. It is being built by local company Western Industrial Contractors (WIC) using wood as a major component and is nearing the exterior lockup stage, with interior work scheduled to be finished in April.
"We were reminded, quite painfully at times, that Kelowna had better options for their students," said Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond, who toured the facility on Monday with Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris and senior officials from Northern Health. "It will add a new dimension to the Northern Medical Program and we have to give credit to people like Dr. Bert Kelly [executive director of the Northern Medical Society] for letting us know what was really needed for infrastructure."
It also has the added benefit of helping existing medical operations going on at the hospital. Northern Health president and CEO Cathy Ulrich said it would "create opportunities for inter-professional practice" whereby doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, specialists of all kinds could work as a team in better ways than ever before.
The new structure would also allow some functions to be moved out of the existing hospital, giving new opportunities within the main building.
"Spacially, it makes a lot of sense," said Ulrich. "We wanted a facility to draw people in to learn together and talk about quality clinical opportunities, together, in a team environment."
The building materials - primarily glulam beams and cross-laminated timber panels - were built by Structurlam Products LP at their factory in Penticton and shipped to Prince George in components.
"It arrived in several truckloads and was assembled in about two weeks," said Northern Health's director of development services Peter Kallos. "It went up so fast, it was like a mushroom springing up from the ground. Some really innovative wood technology is being used in here."
The building is highly visible to passersby at the corner of 15th Avenue and Edmonton Street, south of the main hospital entrance and east of the Jubilee Lodge nursing home.
