After more than a two year community push to move the Mills Memorial replacement project forward, the NDP government has given its approval for the business case for the new facility in Terrace.
Health Minister Adrian Dix was in the Northwest city on Tuesday for the announcement, indicating that the tendering of contracts and first shovels will hit the ground in 2020.
“This is an exciting time for people in Terrace and area, as we are delivering on the goal of a modern, bigger hospital that will be part of a network of care in the North that will have more beds and up-to-date technology to improve patients’ care. The new facility will support the public health-care needs of local residents, as well as people in nearby communities, for decades to come. -- Minister of Health Adrian Dix
The new facility will be designated as a level three trauma and inpatient surgery centre, providing for immediate assessment, resuscitation, surgery and intensive care for injured patients. At 78 beds, the new structure will be more than double the current size of Mills with a footprint of 26,400 square metres (284,000 square feet)
In addition to the new trauma facility, mental health care will also be addressed by the provincial government, with a new and more expansive Seven Sisters regional mental health facility to be constructed on the hospital grounds. That health care project will deliver 25 beds to the new facility, up from the current 20 that are in use. That facility is expected to open in the fall of next year.
The Mills facility will also see a dedicated number of beds, 20 of the 78 to be put to use for the psychiatric care of adult inpatients. It will be built at the north end of the current hospital grounds and is expected to be opened to the public in 2024.
The green light for the project will be welcome news for residents of Terrace who have long been advocating for a modern facility with the level of care that is required in the region, it comes as well as the industrial footprint for the Terrace and Kitimat area is on the increase with a number of projects currently in various stages of development.
And while residents of the North Coast will be welcoming the good news for Terrace and the prospect of improved care for the Northwest, the news does give cause for watchfulness on the North Coast, where concerns have been raised in the past about the prospect of current service levels declining, or existing medical practitioners making the move east to take advantage of the state of the art facility that will soon be under construction.
As we outlined on the blog last week, a call for City Council to keep an eye on the evolving health moves was issued by Councillor Barry Cunningham, who has plans to expand on his concerns at the next Council session and to call for a local committee to follow developments and advocate for continued levels of health care in this community.
"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" -- Councillor Barry Cunningham at the May 13th Prince Rupert Council session
The total cost of the project is expected to be $447.5 million dollars to be shared between the Provincial government through Northern Health along with the North West Regional Hospital District, with Chair Barry Pages expressing the support of that organization towards Tuesday's announcement.
“We are excited to see that the tremendous amount of work that has been underway has now resulted in this announcement. The North West Regional Hospital District Board has been committed to partnering with the Province and Northern Health Authority to see this project become a reality, to strengthen our existing services and to allow for increased health care closer to home for all Northwest residents.”
During the Prince Rupert budget discussions of March and April, the City's Chief Financial Officer made note that the North West Regional District had requested an additional 130,000 dollars over last year from across the region.
Taxpayers in Prince Rupert will soon get a hard number when it comes to how much each of us will be contributing to the new Mills Project, this years Regional Hospital District tax call will be included as part of the Property assessments that will soon be coming to our mailboxes in the near future.
The full statement from the Health Minister along with other background information can be reviewed here. The Province produced a timeline from the original inquiry for a new hospital taking the process through until yesterday's announcement.
You can review some of the details towards that timeline from our notes of February2018 , a wider overview of Northern Health themes can be found on our archive page here.
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