Ground was broken in July and work construction work is underway on the new Patient Care Tower at Penticton Regional Hospital. The Patient Care Tower and parkade will open in 2019. On hand for the special presentation last Friday that showcased the huge crane that will carry construction materials includes (left to right) Deb Runge, Acute Care Health Services Director; Lori Motluk, Executive Director, South Okanagan & North Okanagan Hospitals & Community Integrated Services; Carey Bornn, SOS Foundation Director; Dan Ashton, Penticton MLA; Ezio del Fatti, EllisDon Construction Manager; Andrew Jakubeit, Penticton Mayor; Ken Burrows, IH Board Member; Brent Kruschel, Chief Project Officer; Maureen Thomson, Acute Health Services Director; Walter Despot, Regional Hospital District Chair and Board Chair, SOS Foundation. (Keith Lacey photo)
The massive construction crane that rises high into the Penticton sky not only represents not only a figurative symbol, but is literally the piece of equipment that will do much of the work to build a new regional hospital in Penticton that will serve the health care needs of South Okanagan residents for generations to come.
Last Friday morning, dignitaries from Interior Health, the City of Penticton and MLA Dan Ashton were joined by construction manager Ezio del Fatti to officially kick off the beginning of construction on the new $312-million Penticton Regional Hospital (PRH) Patient Care Tower.
Groundbreaking on the site took place in early July and preliminary construction work has been taking place since.
The huge crane that will carry construction materials was moved on site within the last two weeks and construction on the actual tower will begin this week.
Del Fatti is the heading up the project for EllisDon Infrastructure, which was awarded the contract to build the new patient care tower at PRH in early 2016.
Maureen Thompson, Acute Health Services Manager with Interior Health, said this new hospital would ensure that residents from Penticton – and throughout the South Okanagan – would be able to access quality health care in a state-of-the-art facility that will serve the needs of patients for generations to come.
Discussion about the need for a new regional hospital to replace PRH dates back many years, said Thompson.
“We’ve been planning for this new patient care tower for a very, very long time,” said Thompson.
“This is making a statement telling everyone in the entire South Okanagan Valley that our new tower is getting built,” she said.
Del Fatti said the construction crane that will haul concrete and other building materials over the next several months rises 55 metres high and has a “hoist ratio” of 70 metres.
The concrete base that was built to support the crane is 30 feet by 30 feet in diameter and runs four feet deep into the ground.
Penticton is known to be a place where the wind howls on a regular basis, especially during the winter months, but crews will be able to continue to work safely under most weather conditions as long as winds don’t exceed 70 km/h and the temperature doesn’t dip below 20 degrees Celcius, he said.
The crane is capable of lifting materials that weigh up to 2,400 kilograms using the boom and up to 10,000 kilograms once materials are suspended using the mast, he said.
The height of the crane is 12 feet higher than the highest point once the tower is built, which will be used as a landing pad for a medical helicopter, he said.
A crew of about 200 construction workers will be on site to build the frame of the patient care tower over the next 12 months, he said.
The plan is to continue construction on the tower for several months before construction of a six-storey parkade will begin starting sometime during 2017, he said.
During the entire construction phase, the existing hospital will continue to operate, which will provide certain challenges, he said.
Building the new tower and parkade “will be a bit like a chess game” over the next 12 months, he said.
Del Fatti, who has helped build three other large hospitals during his career, said that almost all of the existing hospital will remain intact during the entire construction phase.
A couple of smaller electrical rooms will have to be demolished from the existing hospital, he said.
Noise and vibration can cause problems for patients trying to recover, so every precaution will be taken to limit the amount of noise and vibration during the construction of the tower and parkade during the next 12 months, he said.
British Columbia’s Premier Christy Clark was joined by numerous dignitaries for the official groundbreaking ceremony during the second week in July.
Clark said the hospital expansion project would result in improved health care for residents of Penticton and the entire South Okanagan region for generations to come.
Clark thanked all those who have worked hard to make it a reality.
“We all know someone who has needed hospital care and when that happens they deserve the best possible care, close to home in the South Okanagan and Similkameen,” she said. This is the value of a strong, growing economy, it gives us the ability to make investments in the services we all depend on.”
The hospital opened its doors at the current location in the early 1950s and it has been 25 years since the last major renovation.
The 281,700-square-foot patient care tower will bring together outpatient care services into one building, provide five modern operating rooms, expand the medical device processing/sterilization unit to nearly triple its current size and provide three floors of single-occupancy inpatient rooms with private washrooms.
Also included in the new tower is expanded space for the UBC Faculty of Medicine program.
The Penticton Regional Hospital Project will be constructed in two phases. Phase one includes the construction of a new patient care tower and parkade.
The tower will feature a new ambulatory care centre with outpatient services including cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, respiratory, pre-surgical screening, maternal/child clinics, and lab satellite medical imaging, surgical services including five operating rooms, three minor procedure rooms, two endoscopy rooms, one cystoscopy room, PICC line/urodynamic room; and infusion services.
There will also be 84 inpatient beds in single patient rooms each with its own washroom and a new medical device reprocessing unit.
Phase two involves the renovation of vacated areas in the current hospital to allow the expansion of the emergency department into a space almost four times the size of the current department, as well as renovations to existing support areas of pharmacy, laundry and materiel (supplies and equipment) stores.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
