Nanaimo Hospital will be increasing ICU capacity by 12 next week as an expansion that has cost more than $60 million nears completion.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a media release the project is intended to bring more lifesaving resources while providing better services for residents in the Nanaimo area.
“We heard the needs of people in Nanaimo,” Dix said. “I’m proud that our government responded with a new ICU that provides both a technological upgrade and an expansion in size to provide better healthcare services.”
According to a media release, the new ICU will provide larger single-patient rooms, ceiling-mounted service booms, and overhead patient lifts, as well as a medication room and family consultation room.
Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcomson says, it is important for everyone to have reliable healthcare and access to get the treatment they need.
“We all want better healthcare for people so we have delivered on a new ICU that Nanaimo can count on,” Malcomson said. “This means more people can get vital, urgent health care.”
While the new unit is scheduled to open next week construction on a new high-acuity unit remains ongoing which replaces the current, temporary eight-bed unit. The unit is expected to be completed next summer.
The current ICU bed unit was built in 1970.
The cost of both units is expected to be just over $60 million dollars, with $41.6 million going to the ICU and $18.5 million to the high acuity unit, and is shared between the provincial government through Island Health, the Nanaimo Regional Hospital District, and the Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation.
