There is no mistaking Janice Perrino’s smile (middle) as she accepts a $30,000 cheque from the Oliver Kiwanis Club. Joining her are Kiwanis members Bev Morrow (left) and Mary Roberts.
Photo by Lyonel Doherty
Janice Perrino had the surprise of her life in Oliver last week when the Kiwanis Club gave her a $30,000 cheque for the new patient care tower project in Penticton.
Perrino, executive director of the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation, was beside herself.
“That will buy one room (and the opportunity to name it),” she said excitedly after Kiwanis members Lee Chic and Allan Close handed her the cheque.
Perrino was a special guest at the Kiwanis luncheon, where she updated members on the $325 million patient care tower coming to Penticton Regional Hospital.
She said construction would likely begin in May of this year and open for business in late 2019.
Perrino noted the new hospital will be approximately 26,700 square metres (the size of three South Okanagan Event Centres).
She pointed out the facility will have many new departments, including more beds, new operating rooms, and a UBC Faculty of Medicine program that will train new doctors (students in residence).
Perrino said the emergency department will be expanded into a space nearly four times the size of the current department.
The project will be constructed in two phases: Phase 1 will consist of the patient care tower and parkade. A new ambulatory care centre will include clinics such as cardio, respiratory, neurology, orthopedic, pre-natal, laboratory and pre-surgical.
Perrino said there will be 84 new private bedrooms (three 28-bed units), but because the original hospital will be closing some of its old rooms, there will only be a net gain of about 17 rooms.
“We don’t need beds the same as we used to; the hospital is not a place that people want to spend a lot of time in,” Perrino said, noting that staff move patients out as quickly as they can these days.
Perrino noted the private rooms will prevent more infection and let patients get more rest and sleep. She added that the noise level throughout the new hospital will be lower.
Phase 1 also includes a new sterilization unit for medical equipment, and a new parking garage with about 500 stalls.
“The parking will be a horrible issue for the next three years,” Perrino admitted to Kiwanis members.
A new surgical suite of operating rooms will be constructed as part of Phase 1. As a point of interest, Perrino mentioned that the lights used above an operating table cost about $75,000 each.
Phase 2 will consist of renovations to the existing hospital, including the emergency department and pharmacy.
Perrino said some of the older sections of the hospital will be decommissioned, while other areas will be revamped.
The completion date for the renovation and expansion of the emergency department is late 2020.
The only dark cloud hovering over the project is the fact that the old hospital’s maintenance staff will lose their jobs, Perrino said. However, the good news is these workers will have first dibs on the new maintenance jobs that become available, she pointed out.
Perrino said the foundation has to raise $20 million in five years. Currently it is half way there.
The fundraising campaign will allow people to “name a room” in the new facility, but that won’t come cheap. Got $30,000 to spare?
Chic said the Kiwanis Club will name a room after its organization.
What’s coming?
Perrino said that Interior Health has hired 30 new specialists in the past three years. It now has 190 doctors and 80 specialists, she pointed out.
In July, four new UBC medical students will be trained in the Family Medicine Program, and four students will be added in 2017.
Perrino also noted that “Tele-Health” will be starting soon. This will see patients receiving medical support via telephone and/or computer screen.
For example, Perrino said it will be possible for a pregnant woman to have an ultrasound in her own community and receive support from her doctor without having to travel to Penticton and beyond.
By Lyonel Doherty
