Three qualified proponents have been short listed to participate in the next stage of the competitive selection process to design, build, partially finance, and maintain the new patient care tower at Penticton Regional Hospital (PRH).

“Today’s announcement is one more step forward on the path to a new patient care tower for residents of the South Okanagan,” said Health Minister Terry Lake. “The new facility is a great example of the investments we are making in communities across the province to strengthen health-care service delivery for patients and families.”

Six teams responded to the Patient Care Tower Request for Qualifications, which closed on Nov. 6. Following evaluation of the responses, the three teams invited to move on to the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage are:

Ellis Don Infrastructure,

Plenary Health, and

Tandem Health Partners.

The project team was pleased with the number of responses, noting that the respondent teams included several local, regional, national and international design and construction firms.

The RFP is expected to be released to the short-listed proponents in February 2015.

The total budget for the project is $325 million. It will be funded jointly by the provincial government, with $122 million provided by the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional Hospital District and $20 million provided by the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation.

This project includes two phases. Phase one is construction of the new patient care tower which will include an ambulatory care centre, surgical services centre, 84 medical/surgical inpatient beds in single patient rooms, a new medical device reprocessing unit, and space for the UBC Faculty of Medicine program. The tower will be approximately 26,700 square metres (287,500 square feet). Phase two (not part of this competitive selection process) involves the renovation of vacated areas in the existing hospital to allow for an expanded emergency department almost four times the size of the current department, plus renovations to the pharmacy, stores and laundry areas.

Construction is expected to start in 2016 with the new tower opening in 2019. The project is expected to create more than 1,910 direct and indirect jobs for workers over the life of the project.

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