Construction is underway on a new $41 million intensive care unit at NRGH. Local elected officials, First Nations representatives and hospital staff were on hand for the ceremony. (submitted/Island Health)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

GROUNDBREAKING

Construction on new Nanaimo ICU officially underway

Feb 2, 2021 | 11:34 AM

NANAIMO — A brand new, multi-million dollar intensive care unit at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital is officially under construction.

Crews broke ground on Tuesday, Feb. 2 to kickstart the $41.57 million project to replace the existing, aging facility.

The new ICU is slated to hold 12 single-patient rooms and be around triple the size of the current ICU. Equipment and facilities including patient lifts, family consultation room and staff rest area are also included.

“We’ll have space for dialysis, breathing machines, for complex infusions of medications. All the complex services that you or I or our families might need if we’re really sick, that’s what this ICU can deliver,” Ben Williams, Island Health VP for medicine and quality, said.

Space for a high-acuity unit to treat critical patients who need less monitoring than those in intensive care will also be created, but requires future funding.

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The new ICU at Nanaimo Hospital is expected to open early 2023 and the project will create upwards of 300 direct and indirect jobs in the community.

Construction was originally budgeted at $34 million and expected to begin in the summer of 2020 and open this year

The ministry of health informed NanaimoNewsNOW late last year unanticipated construction cost increases affected the timing of construction and the budget.

“Our old ICU is a very small unit with 10 tiny beds located at the end of a hallway that every citically ill patient has to be wheeled through,” Williams said.

The existing intensive care unit at the hospital was built in 1970 and is considered outdated and unfunctional.

Dr. Dave Coupland, president of the NRGH medical staff association, previously told NanaimoNewsNOW this facility will address growing needs in the community.

“It’s the first tangible, physical acknowledgement of the needs for a higher level of care in central and north Island and new programs including a tertiary services hospital at NRGH.”

The New ICU will be located south of the current emergency department.

A new parking lot near the ER was created to make up for lost parking taken up by the new ICU space.

An external review categorized Nanaimo’s ICU as one of the worst facilities in Canada and a risk to patients.

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