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East Kootenay Regional Hospital to receive $20 million ICU upgrade

Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett announced that the provincial government has committed to pay 60 per cent of the $20 million project...
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Kootenay East Regional Hospital District board chair John Kettle expresses gratitude for $12 million in funding for a new intensive care unit at Cranbrook’s hospital. Seated: Interior Health board chair Norman Embree (left) and Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett (centre).

A badly outdated intensive care unit in Cranbrook’s East Kootenay Regional Hospital should be a thing of the past by 2016.

Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett announced on Friday that the provincial government has committed to pay 60 per cent of the $20 million project.

“I recall in 2000, Maclean’s magazine portrayed our hospital as the poster child for how bad rural health care was in Canada. Today, this new intensive care unit complements a new ambulatory care ward, new diagnostic imaging centre, new emergency room, new entrance and many new specialists,” Bennett said, speaking on behalf of Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid.

The new ICU will be housed in a new addition, replacing the current four-bed unit, and will include two new, high-acuity beds. Those beds are intended to ease the pressure on the ICU and preserve resources for the most critically ill patients.

The project’s remaining $8 million will be funded by the Kootenay East Regional Hospital District, an entity that taxes residents for capital projects and works with the Interior Health Authority to set priorities.

“Today we celebrate a monumental step in continuing to provide first-class health care to the residents of the East Kootenay,” said KERHD chair John Kettle. “This has truly been a team effort between the hospital district board, Interior Health and our MLA who all worked diligently to see this critical care component move forward. I would like to extend a special thanks to MLA Bill Bennett for never letting up and always keeping this issue front and center for the benefit of everyone in the East Kootenay.”

The project, which is now up for design proposals on the BC Bid website, will include a new electrical system to power the entire hospital. Construction should start in 2014 with completion in 2016.

“A new intensive care unit is the number one priority at our regional hospital in Cranbrook. Interior Health is thrilled to have this commitment from the provincial government and Kootenay East Regional Hospital District,” said IHA board chair Norman Embree.