Interior Health has submitted the Cariboo Memorial Hospital redevelopment plan to the provincial government for review.
If accepted it will go to the detailed design stage.
“It’s taken us longer than we hoped,” IH services administrator Peter du Toit told the Cariboo Chilcoton Regional Hospital District (CCRHD) board. “Now the Ministry of Health and the Treasury board will review the plan.”
The redevelopment will add a new wing, redirect ambulatory care and update the emergency, pharmacy and inpatient departments.
When Mayor Walt Cobb asked if there’s any time frame people can expect, Du Toit said the prioritization will be at the ministry level.
“I cannot give you a definite time line,” Du Toit told Cobb.
Seniors Advisory Council member George Atamanenko said his group wants a resolution, a business plan, more details in place and the tenders out by the end of 2015.
“I’m frustrated,” he said. “This renovation direction has been going on for 12 years. It’s too long.”
Hospital board vice-chair Margo Wagner said the board along with Williams Lake city council have put in a request to meet with health minister Terry Lake at the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference in September.
“If we are successful we plan on going in as a combined team and doing a big pitch for getting the concept plan through,” Wagner said. “We are aware that needs to be done and now that the plan is in that gives us a surer footing.”
Interior Health also confirmed that Cariboo Memorial Hospital has hired a permanent ultrasound technician after using relief technicians for the last six years.
Director for Diagnostic Imaging Kim Perris said Ester Ko was recruited from Ontario and has family in the Williams Lake area.
“We hired someone else but they only stayed for 11 months so we are hoping Ester will stay,” Perris said, noting relief technicians will still be brought in to do two-week block stints at a time.
Presently Dr. Coffey and Dr. Warner are the main radiologists providing services at Cariboo Memorial Hospital.