A number of proposed health care capital projects are potentially on the horizon as the Kootenay East Regional Hospital District board gets set to determine this year’s priorities and discuss the 2022 budget.
All told, the capital projects budget proposed by Interior Health is estimated at $7.5 million, which is cost shared at 40 per cent by local taxpayers through the KERHD and 60 per cent by the province.
The board will be discussing the items during a quarterly meeting on Friday, Feb. 18.
The largest item is a $1.85 million proposal for a Primary Care Network for Golden, while the East Kootenay Regional Hospital in Cranbrook also has a few large proposed projects in the works, including planning for a renovation of oncology and renal dialysis spaces.
Other projects are also proposed for health care facilities in Sparwood, Fernie, Creston and Golden.
The East Kootenay Regional Hospital is the largest health care facility in the region and typically receives the bulk of capital project funding.
Proposed projects at the Cranbrook facility this year include planning for the oncology and renal spaces, including oncology relocation that is expected to come in at approximately $350,000. Interior Health is also requesting an additional $475,000 to complete pharmacy renovations, while also pitching a suction pump replacement, with a proposed budget of $650,000.
The development of a Master Plan for EKRH that would guide future development of the facility has long been a priority for local hospital board directors. However, there has been some back-and-forth between local directors, Interior Health and the province in recent years in terms of developing a shared set of capital funding priorities.
“Each year, we work to prioritize where there is greatest need amongst the health authority, and then of course, when it comes into major, major capital like hospital rebuilds — obviously doing that hand-in-glove with the Ministry of Health,” said Susan Brown, President and CEO of Interior Health, during a recent media availability.
“We do, from a health authority perspective, look at…all our facilities and there is a facility index score that we work for on aging buildings and what aging infrastructure needs to be looked at.”
Further proposed projects for EKRH include a video tower system budgeted for $203,000, a Laser Holmium budgeted at $139,000, and a medstation budgeted at $65,000.
Other significant proposed projects at East Kootenay health care facilities include a General Radiographic System for the Sparwood Health Centre, a chemistry analyzer for the Elk Valley Hospital in Fernie, and a kitchenette replacement at the Swan Valley Lodge in Creston.
The regional hospital district’s cost share of proposed capital funding projects this year is set at just over $3 million.