The 14 “new” beds lying unopened at Fischer Place/Mill Site Lodge (FP/MSL) in 100 Mile House will likely remain empty for some time.
However, the master plan for Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake, used frequently by South Cariboo residents, has been nudged forward.
Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District (CCRHD) chair John Massier recently met with the board of Interior Health Authority (IHA) to discuss the status of local capital projects for health care.
“I got a lot more understanding, and a lot more information of what’s going on with these.”
For many months, Massier has been actively pursuing an answer from IHA on when key health initiatives in the South and Central Cariboo might move forward.
These include the opening of the remaining 14 long-term care beds installed at FP/MSL and the major renovation planned for Cariboo Memorial Hospital.
“I didn’t have any luck with Fisher Place beds, other than we are waiting to hear back from them on the policy they use to determine the needs in a community.”
Massier says he believes policy uses a demographic of people over 75 years of age, but notes that with the South Cariboo’s aging community and the fact the beds and most of the staff and the supports are already there, perhaps the need can be more easily justified through a shared-capacity perspective.
“[I asked,] ‘Is there any way we can open these beds and call them an emergency overflow for the whole health authority?’, so that they’re going to have places to put long-term care patients.”
It’s also “common knowledge” that tales of “bed blockers” are widely spoken throughout the CCRHD, where long-term care patients are reportedly placed in acute care hospital beds when facilities fill up, Massier adds.
“Why wouldn’t they open these beds when the infrastructure is in place? It’s going to cost something to run them, but it can’t be that much because all the support services are already there in the building.”
Massier says he will advance his overflow idea with IHA finance/residential care management to see if that might be a feasible way to get those beds open without making it appear that 100 Mile House is “jumping the queue” of health projects.
“I’d say the highlight of the meeting was we were given assurance by [IHA president and CAO Dr. Robert Halpenny] that the Cariboo Memorial Hospital master plan is on its radar to move it forward with the Ministry of Health. They’re going to be meeting with the ministry to view the strategic plan on Nov. 15.”
That’s the assurance that it will make IHA’s list of top projects before it is submitted to the health ministry, he explains, but this is the point where health authority input stops.
Getting on the provincial budget is the next difficulty, he notes.
The IHA priority list already has 22 other capital projects worth more than $2 million, and Massier doesn’t know how many more of a lesser amount.
“They have a pretty big list, probably, of projects $100,000 to $2 million, but they said they are going to add the hospital, and they are going to move it forward with the Ministry of Health, so I think that’s good news.”
However, even with the Cariboo Memorial Hospital plan now “up a notch” on the list, he doesn’t foresee any big changes soon.
“I wouldn’t get anyone’s hopes up because it’s $150-million project. From what I’ve seen … we’re looking at about $850 million-plus ahead of us in line, and IHA’s budget forecast for 2013-14 is $88 million total in capital.”
Once it reaches the provincial level, the CCRHD will partly rely on Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett and others with provincial clout to lobby for getting the hospital project made a funding priority.
“We’re going to need the help of our local MLA and anyone else to try and get the Ministry of Health to realize the importance of this project locally, and then move it along and get it funded.”
