St. Joseph’s General Hospital has begun planning for its future role. The Diocese of Victoria, owner of the hospital, has indicated support in exploring a future role that would continue to serve
the community and region in the areas of health and seniors’ services.
With the opening of the Comox Valley Hospital as part of the North Island Hospitals Project, scheduled for the fall of 2017, acute-care services will transfer to the new hospital. Remaining on site at St. Joseph’s will be the 125 residential care beds in The Views.
The hospital is working closely with the Comox Valley Hospice Society to develop four hospice beds in The Views and this service would also be part of the ongoing services offered on the site.
“This is an excellent opportunity to identify other programs and services that will complement residential and hospice care to continue to meet the needs of the Comox Valley and region," said hospital board chair Chris Kelsey.
"The St. Joseph’s General Hospital board of directors has established a future role task force to oversee this important work. We are very appreciative that Island Health has representation on the task force and is providing support for this planning.”
The task force began meeting earlier this fall. It is comprised
of St. Joseph’s board members, members from the community at large, an Island Health representative, and a Comox Valley Division of Family Practice representative:
• Cynthia Davies. St. Joseph’s board member (task force chair);
• Chris Kelsey, St. Joseph’s board chair;
• Jon Pascoe, St. Joseph’s board member;
• Sandy Dreger, St. Joseph’s board member;
• Audrey Craig, community representative;
• Dr. Jill Toews, community representative;
• Jim Bennett, community representative;
• Dr. Margaret Manville, division of family practice representative;
• Grant Hollett, corporate director, planning and community engagement, Island Health representative;
• Jane Murphy, St. Joseph’s president and CEO.
The task force is identifying key groups that may have an interest in the future role of the St. Joseph’s site. A plan is being developed by the task force that will outline the specific steps to achieve the goal of clarifying the future role by the fall of 2015.
The next piece of work for the task force will be the development of a consultation framework to identify the best ways to seek and obtain input from the community and stakeholders. Upon
completion of the consultation framework, anticipated in February 2014, the task force will begin to engage groups to obtain their perspectives.
— St. Joseph’s General Hospital