The business plan for the redevelopment of the Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake has been completed and officially approved on time and on schedule.
Health Minister Adrian Dix made the announcement this (Wednesday) morning.
“Our government is very proud and on behalf of Premier John Horgan, and in partnership with Interior Health Authority, the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District, to announce the business plan for the redevelopment of this place, the Cariboo Memorial Hospital has been approved, we are going ahead.”
Some of the features included in the plan is a larger emergency department, more room for ambulatory care, a mental health and substance use inpatient unit, and the addition of 15 new beds with space reserved to open more in the future.
The total cost of the project is 217.75 million dollars.
The bill will be shared by the provincial government. Interior Health, and the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District.
The work will include a three-story, approximately 95-hundred square meter addition to the hospital, as well as renovations to parts of the current facility.
Construction will be done in two phases.
Phase one will begin in 2021 with work on the new addition and is expected to be completed by 2023.
Phase two will then begin on renovations to the current hospital, and those are expected to be completed in 2025.
Bob Simpson, Board Chair, Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District said this project is a much-needed investment in our health services and a major contribution to the resilience and economic stability of our region.
“The added value to the hospital through the Mental Health and Substance Abuse pod, the Maternity Pod, what we will be able to do in Emergency, and additional capacity in ICU, all of that makes it much easier for us to recruit and retain Health Care professionals and make them vest in our community and vest in Health Care delivery.”
Simpson said, “the Hospital District has been saving for over a decade to help fund this project, so we are very excited to see it move to the construction phase.”