Funding for a new 12-bed high acuity unit at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital was revealed during a Thursday, March 23 news conference (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

health funding

Nanaimo hospital receives funding for new acute care ward

Mar 23, 2023 | 3:23 PM

NANAIMO — Provincial funds are at last flowing for a long-discussed high acuity unit (HAU) at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. (NRGH)

Funding led by the province was confirmed for a 12 bed high acuity unit (HAU), to function on the ground floor below the 12-bed intensive care unit (ICU) currently under construction at the NRGH.

Manager of respiratory therapy of the ICU and HAU Kelly McColm said this new addition is a major benefit.

“Intensive care benefits the hospital, and it actually benefits the Island, and it benefits the province. It’s specialized care for people who are very very ill, and we’re trying to keep them alive.”

The new HAU beds will replace the current, temporary eight-bed HAU, and will be spaced out in three pods, with four beds per pod, a nurse station and support spaces.

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Those temporary beds were added once the COVID-19 pandemic began, and saw over 900 patients since then, according to McColm.

“The need has been here for years. There are always the patients who sit in the grey area that are maybe not sick enough for ICU, or the ICU is full, and they’re sitting in the emergency and needing that one-to-one care, too sick for the ward. This is the perfect in-between for those patients.”

Kelly McColm said pending additional and modernized acute care capacity will lead to a significant boost to primary healthcare on the mid Island. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

The total cost of this project is now $60.1 million, shared between the provincial government, Island Health, Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation and Nanaimo Regional Hospital District (NRHD).

NRHD chair and Nanaimo city councillor Ian Thorpe told a Thursday, March 23 news conference they are committed to making further commitments to the 60-year-old NRGH.

“Including a new patient tower, a cancer centre, cardiac catheratization lab and a new long-term care centre…this is one step, it’s very exciting,” Thorpe said.

The HAU complements a newly constructed intensive care unit with 12 single-patient rooms.

A shell for the HAU space located adjacent to the new intensive care unit was built in as part of the ICU construction project, however funding had not been committed for the HAU until now.

Critical patients who require less monitoring than ICU patients will be cared for in the HAU.

The new HAU, strategically located near the operating and emergency ward, is also equipped to support ICU-level patients if the need arises.

The new ICU is scheduled to open for patients in June, while the HAU has a targeted opening date of Sept. 2024.

Construction on the delayed ICU project began in Feb. 2021 after provincial funding was pledged three years earlier.

The Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation has already raised more than $875,000 toward its $5 million goal to support the new HAU project.

Donations to the cause can be made here.

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