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MERRITT HERALD THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
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Health minister tours hospital By Michael Potestio THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
PARADE ROUTE The city’s Remembrance Day parade makes its way to the legion after the annual ceremony at the Civic Centre on Tuesday. Always well attended, Merrittonians young and old came out to remember and honour Nicola Valley veterans and lay wreaths at the local cenotaph. Ian Webster/Herald
The Interior Health Authority has put the expansion of the Nicola Valley Hospital and Health Centre’s emergency room at the top of its priority list for rural hospitals. IHA administrator Bernadine Easson shared the news on Monday when Health Minister Terry Lake was in Merritt to tour the local hospital for the first time, which he committed to earlier this year. Lake told the Herald the main concerns he heard of on his tour were the facility operating over capacity and the need to upgrade its busy emergency department. Lake toured the hospital with MLA Jackie Tegart, Merritt Mayor Susan Roline, IHA management staff and representatives from the Nicola Valley Health Care Auxiliary. The tour consisted of visits to each department, where department heads explained how their particular areas of the hospital function and what their needs are, Roline told the Herald. Lake said the provincial government sets priorities based on the corresponding health authority. He said several steps would be involved along the way to upgrading the Merritt hospital. “It’s not just as simple as saying, ‘We’re going to expand the emergency department,’” he said. Lake said a potential emergency department expansion
would need to be assessed, and would need a concept plan and a business plan before getting final approval. He said the project would need to fit into both the IHA’s capital plan and the overall provincial capital plan. Lake said the Nicola Valley Health Care Endowment Foundation owns land around the hospital which would be looked at for expansion. Tegart said figuring out how to get architectural planning on an emergency room expansion completed in a timely fashion is a concern. She said that would need to be done by the IHA to know how much the project would cost. Roline said Merritt’s emergency department is one of the busiest rural emergency departments in the province. Lake said the emergency department at the local hospital deals with about 11,000 cases per year, a significant number given the size of the facility. “They do an amazing job given the limitation of the space, but there’s no question that it needs to be expanded and modernized,” he said. Tegart said she and Lake will meet with president and CEO of Interior Health Dr. Robert Halpenny at some point to discuss the upgrade. No date has been set for a meeting yet. Tegart said the hospital foundation indicated a willingness to fundraise and work with IHA on this project.
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