Salt Spring Island’s new emergency department will be open for business in days, not months, according to health officials, with Wednesday, Oct. 9 set as the start of patient care at a recently-completed expansion at Lady Minto Hospital.
The $13.6 million project — funded with more than $8 million raised by the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation (LMHF) — includes a 420-square-metre building addition, bringing the total building size to 2,728 square metres and increasing the number of treatment rooms/bays from six to eight, according to Island Health.
LMHF board chair Dennis Miller said the foundation was proud to have been the “conduit” for the growing community’s generosity.
“With a five-fold increase in our island’s population since the current emergency department was built, this state-of-the-art new facility is an important step forward to preserve our on-island health care,” said Miller. “The foundation is immensely appreciative of both Island Health’s and the Capital Regional Hospital District’s (CRHD) support, collaboration and investment in making this possible.”
Those investments included $3.7 million from CRHD and another $1.8 million from Island Health. The expansion includes a medication area, dedicated check-in desk and a nursing team care station that allows health staff to see all assessment treatment areas. The upgrade also includes an expanded patient and family waiting area, a safe de-escalation room, ambulance bay, decontamination site and accessible washrooms.
On the expansion of the ER at Lady Minto Hospital what is the plan and funding for staff expansion to match the space expansion?