The regional hospital board has reaffirmed its support for building two new hospitals to serve the North Island.
During a board meeting last Thursday, the Comox Strathcona Regional Hospital District (CSRHD) reaffirmed its support for the two-hospital model and for the locations chosen for the delivery of future hospital services to its constituents.
The board also reconfirmed its support for having all existing services maintained at the current hospitals during the transition to the new hospitals and for a minimum of 40 "alternative level of care" beds provided prior to the construction of the new hospitals for the long term care patients in the existing hospitals, according to a news release from the CSRHD.
Last week, Cumberland Mayor Fred Bates expressed his belief that a new hospital in Courtenay in the Crown Isle development is not the best location from a patient's standpoint during a Cumberland council meeting.
Bates also objected to replacing the original single regional hospital concept with a community hospital-support model with new facilities in the Comox Valley and Campbell River.
Bates said he hoped local government, the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) and the provincial government could revisit the original proposal before the province commits to a new hospital at the top of Ryan Road.
Grant Hollett, director of the North Island Hospitals Project, was relieved to hear the renewed support from the CSRHD.
"For this to be reopened and the debate to begin anew about a single hospital or two-hospital model would be a significant delay in us completing the business case," he said. "The regional hospital district reaffirming its support is a bit of a relief to us here, as we're not reopening the debate ... it means I can work within the timelines I have here, which is still a fall target date for submitting the business case."
VIHA announced in January that it had entered into an agreement with Silver Sand Land Corp. — Crown Isle — for the purchase of a 15-acre site on Ryan Road within the Crown Isle development once the North Island Hospitals Project receives a funding commitment from the provincial government.
Local consulting firm Fletcher Pettis initially examined a number of sites in the Valley and came up with 22 sites in September 2009. Six sites were shortlisted in September 2010, and the selection of this final site was approved by the BC Government North Island Hospitals Project Board.
VIHA looked at several criteria simultaneously, and the Crown Isle location came out on top based on issues such as technical considerations for the site; infrastructure considerations such as water, sewer and traffic flow; soil and geotechnical considerations, reasonable proximity to the population and close proximity to other emergency services, explained Hollett.
When VIHA originally starting to look for solutions for replacing the aging hospitals in Comox and Campbell River, the health authority proposed a single regional hospital, but that proposal was not supported by either community or by the CSRHD.
VIHA went back to the drawing board and proposed a new hospital in Campbell River and a new hospital in the Comox Valley.
"That has the full support of the regional hospital district, and we needed that to move forward with the business case," said Hollett. "The linchpin in this is regional hospital districts are 40-per-cent funders of new infrastructure, including hospitals. If they're not supporting the model, there are insufficient funds for it to succeed."
VIHA is currently working on the business case for the North Island Hospitals Project and is scheduled to submit the business case to the provincial government Project Board this fall, in October or November at the latest, according to Hollett.
"We're hopeful if we get it in the fall ... we're kind of counting on a government announcement in the early new year," he said. "Once we submit it, it's truly out of our hands and in the hands of the government and the Treasury Board."
The Comox Valley hospital will have 150 to 160 beds with some regional services, while the Campbell River hospital will have 90 to 95 beds. The initial estimated capital costs for the two hospitals are about $550 million.
writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com