Island Health is inviting the community to an information session about the new Cowichan District Hospital.
On Wednesday, June 30, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. people are invited to tune into a live Zoom webinar.
The evening will start with an update from panelists on where the project stands, followed by a question and answer session.
The Zoom link is https://bit.ly/2TS8FtS
To submit questions in advance, go to www.sli.do. The event code is #newcdh.
Only panelists will be visible on-screen, so don’t worry if you can’t see yourself. The session will also be recorded for viewing if you can’t attend. To request a link to the video recording, email newcdh@viha.ca.
Land on Bell McKinnon Road in North Cowichan, earmarked for the new Cowichan hospital, was transferred to Island Health in March of 2021. Construction of the new hospital is estimated to cost $887.4 million, and is expected to be completed in 2026.
The new hospital is anticipated to be about 496,000 square feet, nearly three times larger than the current facility.
The scope of the project includes 201 acute inpatient beds, up from the 134 in the current facility.
The new hospital’s emergency department will triple in size and accommodate 42,000 visits a year, while the number of treatment spaces will increase from 17 to 36, with two trauma bays, rapid access and discharge space, fast-track streaming space and a dedicated acute psychiatric space with two seclusion rooms.
There will be an increase of three operating rooms, for a total of seven, with one operating room dedicated to C-sections, and medical imaging at the new hospital will include increased CT scanning capacity and built-in magnetic resonance imaging.
Mental health services will include a 17-bed inpatient psychiatry unit with access to secure outdoor space and a four-bed psychiatric intensive care unit.
A new birthing unit with capacity for 10 maternity beds and a nursery for families and new moms will be included, and a new labour, delivery, recovery and postpartum maternity care model will provide mothers with a place to give birth and stay in the same room with their infants until they are discharged.
The hospital will also be a training site for medical students and residents in the University of British Columbia Island Medical Program.
There will be 800 parking spots, about double the number of spaces at the current hospital.
With files from Robert Barron.