A new hospital in Terrace is now a reality following a recent announcement from Health Minister Adrian Dix.
It will replace Mills Memorial Hospital, which has been around since 1961 and will not be able to meet the future needs of patients.
This will now allow the project to move on to the business phase.
“We’re going to now move forward with that business planning phase, it will be about a year to year-and-a-half and will be able to finalize further details around the project, scope of the new facility and further detail on the services and improvements that will be providing,” says Ciro Panessa, Northern Health Chief Operating Officer for the Northwest.
“We’ll get started on the business planning phase in earnest as that will take 12 to 18 months and as that progresses we will be in a better position to start talking about when shovels can be in the ground.”
He adds once the new facility is built, it will help fill a major void.
“The current hospital will not meet the needs of patients in the area moving into the future and to have the opportunity to have a state-of-the-art facility like this is going to be tremendous.”
The new hospital will be funded in conjunction with the North West Regional Hospital District.
The Mills Memorial Hospital has 42 funded beds and offers a variety of services like emergency care, maternity, medical imaging as well as surgical and intensive care.
Panessa says the current facility has become a bit of a hub not just for patients but also for medical professionals.
“The hospital has evolved over the years to not only just serve Terrace and some of the local communities surrounding it but is really become a resource for the whole Northwest and it’s interesting this decision around the hospital and even the hospital that currently exists we have a large number of specialists that work and live in Terrace. To my knowledge, it’s the second-highest number of specialists outside of Prince George.”
The original request for a new hospital in Terrace was made in 2010.
A concept plan was then first received by the government in April of 2014 while an updated plan was submitted last October.