Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Cunningham calls for a watchful eye on Terrace hospital developments

Fresh from a week in Williams Lake at the North Central Local Government Association convention, Councillor Barry Cunningham offered up some words of concern when it comes to health care in the Northwest.

Noting that the plans for the rebuild of Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace are still being worked out between Northern Health and the Treasury Board, Mr. Cunningham offered up a warning for Council that he has some concerns that some services currently available in Prince Rupert may be  in peril.

"I'm a little concerned about us possibly losing some of our services and as we discussed once before, bringing up a health advisory group, and I wold like to maybe in the next meeting discuss that or actually bring the points to do that"

The next opportunity for Mr. Cunningham to expand on his concerns and to move forward his proposal will be at the May 27th Council session.

Health Care services in Prince Rupert were on the mind
of Councillor Barry Cunningham Monday night
The Councillors' concerns have made for some frequent observations in the past, with Mr. Cunningham having last made note of the issue through his Facebook portal back in November of 2018.

The theme of Mills Memorial was also of some note from the recent Budget deliberations by City Council, with the City's Financial Officer noting that the Northwest Regional Hospital District has issued a requisition for additional financial resources related to the business plan for Mills Memorial among other project.

The Mills Memorial announcement was made by Health Minister Adrian Dix in February of 2018, though in recent months little has been heard about the progress of the rebuild plan or what impact it may have on health services once the expanded medical centre is complete.

As we noted at the time, the expansion of services in the Terrace area would require some vigilance in Prince Rupert to ensure that this community retains much of its current medial services, with a goal of increasing services in the future.

For more notes on Monday's City Council Session see our Council Timeline feature here.

A wider overview of Health notes from the Northwest can be explored from our Health Archives.


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