Dollars for UHNBC
MLA Mike Morris shares the good news – video 250News
Prince George BC – Good news for the University Hospital of Northern BC. The Province has announced $8 million to expand inpatient bed capcity and a further $4.5 million for upgrades to the electrical systems.
The Province has also approved the development of a concept plan for phase one of a redevelopment that will include expanded surgical services, mental health and cardiac care .
Northern Health Board Chair Charles Jago says the plan is for a 6 storey building with new surgical suites and that the project will be fast tracked .”There has been a lot of work on the concept plan already, so we’re ready to get down to details. Then you have a plan that goes to cabinet and the treasury board and you get the approval for the business planning, so we are well along the way. I just want people to understand that we’re not starting from zero, we’ve done a lot of the work, so we’ll be moving quickly.”
Dr. Bill Simpson, of the Northern Medical Society offers praise to the local MLAs and to the Premier for getting this project the attention it needed. It was just a couple of months ago that the Society voiced its disappointment that new facilities had been announced for Kamloops and in the lower mainland, but nothing for this region. ” when there was such a need in this region . I didn’t think it would happen this quickly” says Dr. Bill Simpson “I am truly impressed the enormous amount of work that’s gone into this to fast track. Especially grateful to the Premier who became personally interested and involved. She had a meeting with us face to face, she listened, she got all sorts of information and made a decision to have it fast tracked. It took political will to do that.” Dr. Simpson says fast tracking the work has taken two years off the planning process.
Dr. Jago says it is possible to see shovels in the ground “within a two year period, I think we are intent on moving forward quickly. The demand is there, the need is there, we’ve done a lot of the preliminary work, a massive amount of work, so we are ready to move ahead vigorously.”
Comments
smells like the election bunny is dropping treats
Hahaha that’s hilarious!!! Although sad…but thanks for the giggle
Stop blaming the upcoming election it is getting extremely OLD! The government dishes out funds all the damn time but some people only read this type of news when an election is upcoming and have to put in their two cents.. But not really.
But you putting your two cents in, telling people to stop voicing their opinions, is perfectly fine.
Election or not, any money put into health care is good!
It should have been done before the 2010 OWElympics were approved not a month away from an election.
There hasn’t been an election since Vancouver 2010?
Look at the poster’s name. That should give you a clue. LOL
Perhaps dumbfounded is trying to remind us that the announcement that Vancouver won the bid to host the Olympics was made by the International Olympic Committee on July 2, 2003.
The election just prior to that was in 2001. Going into that election the NDP was in power, so they would have been the Party who could have made an announcement to expand the hospital ……
This all gets very confusing since an expansion of the hospital was done after the BC Liberals came to power……:-(
Can you clarify what you meant dumbfounded?
**The Province also approved the development of a concept plan for phase one of a redevelopment that will include expanded surgical services, mental health and cardiac care**
Now that’s a mouthful. So we will have to wait for the development of the concept plan, before we get to phase one.
In any event I agree that we certainly need to look at all aspects of the Regional Hospital to ensure that we are getting bang for our bucks, and perhaps have less people travel to other areas for various surgeries.
Is there a whole wing at the hospital that is empty? I was under the impression the expansion portion done the 70’s is essential under utilized. does anyone know?
There is an entire floor of one of the buildings currently unused I believe.
Does this mean that next time my 83 yr old mother has to visit the emergency dept that she won’t have to lay in the hallway with an oxygen mask on, (that wasn’t even connected to oxygen) for 8 hours waiting for a few simple blood tests, while one of our local piss tanks that needed a place to pass out had showed up and got a bed behind the curtains?
That;s god News that the planning stages are this far along… BUT… they should have informed the doctors bout their plans and gotten their input and support..
Who cares if there is an election or not, we need this and if an election is needed to get funding let’s make sure the liberals get back in to have it followed through, reason enough to vote liberal
Right. Another election “treat” that will just quickly fade from Christy and her LibCred Partys memories if they are re-elected. I won’t be holding my breath that this thing will ever see fruition. Nothing about this project in the previous five years. It just suddenly gets announced during an election cycle by LibCred supporter Charles Jago.
The LibCreds really do think people here are stupid swine that will suck up any slop that they throw into the trough.
And, wow, announcing the spending of money that should have been spent upgrading that building over the last five years as if they are doing something wonderful for us. It’s insulting.
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