Health Minister Adrian Dix announced today (Sept. 20) a concept plan approval for major upgrades at the University Hospital of Northern B.C.
The province has approved a plan for a new patient care tower, including a cardiac care unit at UNHBC.
“There was a profound need for an upgrade project at UHNBC which has become a major hospital in British Columbia,” said Dix, during the afternoon announcement.
“We proceeded working with the Northern Health Authority to prepare a concept plan to improve the UHNBC and to do what is necessary. Today, I am very proud to say the province, treasury board and the government approved the concept plan for a new patient care tower including a new cardiac unit at UHNBC. It is an extraordinary thing and I am very proud of this work.”
He clarified a concept plan has to be approved by the treasury board with the 10-year-capital plan in mind, which will then be fine-tuned during the business plan stage.
“You are going forward once you approve the concept plan. I can’t think of a single health care plan that when the concept plan has been approved that governments have not proceeded with,” said Dix.
He said the project is estimated to cost anywhere from $600 to $700 million and include about 100 additional beds.
“The fact that today we are approving the concept plan for UHNBC in Prince George is a significant step, one that the people of Prince George have been calling for a long time.”
He said in the next 15 years the population of northern B.C. is expected to increase by 8 per cent but he population of seniors is expected to increase by 66 per cent which has profound implications on the health care system and is just one of the reasons why the upgrade is so needed in the north.
The new patient care tower will include three key elements: improved surgical suites, mental health and addictions, and a standalone cardiac care unit.
“We need to increase demand and upgrade services and have surgical facilities that meet the test and this plan certainly does. Secondly with mental health and addictions, we are certainly below where we need to be with the quality of mental health and addictions care and the number of beds,” said Dix.
UHNBC currently does not have a standalone cardiac care unit as those services are dispersed among different departments and many patients have to travel to southern B.C. for procedures.
“This is very important for people in the north,” said Dix. “There’s currently no invasive interventional cardiology suite or coronary unit at UHNBC and patients must be transferred to cardiac centres in southern B.C. and this results in longer wait times compared to patients that receive care closer to home and all of the challenges associated with travel. That will change with this proposal.”
Dix says the new tower would be linked by tunnel and bridge to the current hospital and contain 21-century equipment.
In terms of a timeline for the project, Dix referenced the Mills Memorial Hospital replacement project in Terrace which is scheduled to begin construction this year after the concept plan for that project was announced in 2018.
“The good news for us, and for everyone in Prince George is that we are starting,” said Dix. “When you think of the milestones on this project, the concept plan approval is 12 to 18 months and then procurement, and design and construction and then you commission the building so we are on the road to that.”
UHNBC was built in 1958 and was originally called Prince George Regional Hospital. Additions were completed in 1978 and 2003. There are 10 additional buildings that make up the 216-bed UHNBC site.
