Amid a small flurry of health-related announcements for northern B.C., the quest to bring a new surgical tower to the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia has not been forgotten, according to B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix.
"Quite the contrary," Dix said this week after he was in Fort St. James to announce a new Stuart Lake Hospital has been advanced to the business plan stage and in Quesnel to unveil a new urgent primary care centre.
Any concern the Fort St. James project has jumped the queue is unfounded, he said. According to a Ministry of Health press release, discussions regarding replacement of the hospital date back to 2008.
In September 2015, Northern Health submitted a concept plan for the project to Victoria and a revised version was submitted this summer and approved this month, moving the project to the business plan stage. That process will take 12 to 18 months with procurement and construction follow.
In contrast, he noted the previous government gave Northern Health the go-ahead to proceed with a concept plan for improved and expanded surgical services at UNHBC in April 2017, just before the provincial election.
As envisioned at the time, the centrepiece is to be a six-storey building with advanced surgical suites. Concept planning work was also to be pursued for both mental health and cardiac services.
In April, when he was in Prince George to announce plans to increase hip and knee replacements at UNHBC, Dix said a concept plan for the tower was received in December 2017.
On Tuesday, he said it remains in draft form "and we're working with them on it."
Made up of modular buildings, Stuart Lake Hospital was opened in 1972 and was to last only 20 years. "And now we're working on 46 years," Dix said and contended a new hospital in Fort St. James will help take the load off UHNBC.
"Part of what we want to do is provide better care in communities," he said.
So far this year, similar announcements have also been made for Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake, Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace and South Peace and District Hospital in Dawson Creek to go with those in Fort St. James and Quesnel.
None of them are located in ridings held by NDP MLAs, Dix noted.
"I just make that point that I'm taking this very, very seriously," he said. "And I believe that one of the most important things to do for residents of the north is to ensure their health infrastructure is there."
Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond said she always happy to see investment on northern B.C. and will continue to advocate for improvements to UHNBC. She said extensive work was done prior to the latest proposals for the hospital being advanced to the concept planning stage.
"Prince George is a regional hospital," she said. "It served people across northern British Columbia and during the tenure of our government, we made significant improvements. And the next logical step is to move forward with substantive work to increase capacity, to look at the issue of cardiac care and the planning and much of that work was done prior to agreeing to a concept plan."
Meanwhile, work on new inpatient unit at UHNBC remains ongoing. By the time it's finished, the hospital's second floor will be home to a 24-bed unit with exercise-rehabilitation, dining and common lounge areas. IDL Projects was awarded an $8-million contract to carry out the work, which is expected to be completed by early next year.
