Dale Bass – Kamloops This Week
There is no doubt in Carol Laberge’s mind a new surgical tower will be built at Royal Inland Hospital.
“It’s not if, it’s when,” the RIH administrator told a recent Kamloops Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting.
“We are getting this tower.”
Laberge, who took over administering RIH about seven months ago, acknowledged Health Minister Terry Lake’s work in getting approval for the $80-million clinical-services building and parkade now under construction on the north side of the hospital, telling the gathering work is on schedule for an opening next summer.
She said there have been three meetings with representatives of groups that would use a surgical tower, with two more planned, as the Interior Health Authority creates the business plan needed to make its case to the provincial government.
Conceptual drawings have already been done and plans are to build it on the east side of the hospital.
Earlier this year, Lake said he anticipates receiving the plan by the end of next year, with construction by 2020.
Laberge reviewed other aspects of health care at RIH, including a program designed to reduce the length of hospital stays after major surgeries, improved processes that speed up recovery after colo-rectal surgeries and new training for staff who want to take on specific new initiatives that enhance the provision of health care.
While much of the presentation was on programs and statistics, Laberge also talked about the chimes heard often throughout RIH.
Every time a baby is born in the hospital, the chimes are rung.
“And it’s almost like the hospital takes a pause when you hear the chimes,” Laberge said.