By Dominic Abassi

New $34-million intensive care unit at Nanaimo Hospital to replace ‘outdated’ facility

Nov 21, 2018 | 10:42 AM

NANAIMO — A brand new $34-million intensive care unit at Nanaimo’s hospital is expected to be ready to serve the region’s most critically ill patients within three years.

NDP Health Minister Adrian Dix was at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital Wednesday morning to announce the project. To be built in an existing parking lot between the renal and emergency departments, Dix said the new ICU will be three-times larger than the existing facility. It will feature 12 beds instead of the current nine, private rooms, places for family members to gather and state-of-the-art equipment.

Dix said he expected construction to begin in 2020, with the ICU opening in 2021.

Dr. Ben Williams, Island Health’s executive medical director for Nanaimo and region, said the current facility was built in the 1970s and the rooms aren’t large enough to accommodate modern medical equipment.

“So if we have a patient who is using several different pieces of equipment…not all of the equipment or doctors and nurses can fit in the room. They’ll actually have to pass pieces of equipment over or under cords and wires to get it to the physician working on the patient,” Williams said.

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He said the new location, connected to the emergency room, operating room and medical imaging, will better serve patients.

“Right now the patients are wheeled down a long public hallway through a hospital ward to get to those services. These patients that are very vulnerable, often unconscious, have to be wheeled through a public area and it’s just not possible to have the dignity our staff and patients expect.”

Williams said the ICU is where a hospital’s most critically ill patients go and they need the best possible environment, which he believed the new facility would deliver.

Both NDP MLA Doug Routley and mayor Leonard Krog said the need for a new ICU at NRGH was one of the top messages they heard from constituents for years.

Krog shared a story of his experience when his wife was admitted to the existing ICU.

“I was so impressed with the care she received but it was equally obvious it was a cramped, outdated facility.”

He said while everyone applauds the staff and care at NRGH, the popular opinion is the building is “not such a hot place.”

“This will provide an incredible enhancement for people who require intensive care,” Krog said.

Speaking to the need for the upgrade, Dix referenced a 2013 report the government received which called NRGH’s ICU one of the worst facilities in all of Canada and a risk to patients.

With a provincial byelection to fill the Nanaimo MLA position looming, Dix was asked about the timing of the announcement.

He said the project wasn’t on the radar when the NDP was elected in 2017.

“It’s moved forward quickly because we desperately need the project…Yes, we drove this project from the time I became Minister of Health to today to get it done and announced. But it’s not for any other reason than the people of Nanaimo need this project.”

A release from the province said ICU visits at NRGH are expected to total almost 2,500 in 2018, growing to 3,250 by 2033. It said the $34-million project will be cost-shared by the province, the Nanaimo Regional Hospital District and Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation.

NanaimoNewsNOW reached out to the Ministry of Health with questions about the impact removing existing parking spaces would have on an area where they are already in short supply. This story will be updated with the Ministry’s reply.

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi