Two anticipated healthcare projects for Salt Spring Island have been knocked off the 10-year plan, as regional officials shifted in response to “reprioritization” at Island Health.
A special meeting of the Capital Regional Hospital District Board (CRHD) was held Wednesday, Oct. 30 to discuss that body’s 10-year capital plan. It’s an annual exercise that lays out CRHD’s financial support for capital projects and healthcare equipment –– a list that came from Island Health’s priorities, explained Kevin Lorette, the Capital Regional District (CRD) general manager of planning and protective services.
Removed from this year’s list were two projects previously planned at Lady Minto Hospital: a second phase of redeveloping the emergency department’s imaging suite –– budgeted at $5 million, with a CRHD share of $1.5 million –– and a 50-bed long-term care project also at the hospital, budgeted at $50 million with a CRHD share of $15 million.
CRHD typically contributes 30 per cent of the funding for major capital projects, according to staff reports. That contribution over the next 10 years –– technically from 2025 to 2034 –– for “planned or possible” Island Health projects is $412 million. That’s $29 million less than the CRHD board approved in March, which staff said was the result of the health authority’s reprioritization of projects.
At the Oct. 30 meeting, Island Health’s capital management executive director David Boychuk characterized the removal of the 50-bed long-term care project particularly as a “long-term temporary” deferral for Salt Spring.
“The reasoning there, to be quite frank, is that we currently have three long-term care projects in planning,” said Boychuk. “We don’t foresee the ability for the province to approve a project in the near term in the South Island [region], given that we have 753 beds’ worth of long-term care projects in the planning phase now.”
Boychuk added that while Island Health was looking to match projects to “areas of greatest need,” they also were looking to support projects they felt the B.C. government would greenlight.
“At this time, we don’t feel that we’ll get support bringing a long-term care facility [on Salt Spring Island] forward to the province,” he said. “We believe we have a low probability of success, in terms of securing provincial approval; we don’t want it sitting on the 10-year plan until such time as we think it has a reasonable prospect of success.”
Funding for the creation of 50 long-term care beds at Lady Minto was anticipated in last year’s version of the 10-year plan to begin funding in 2029; Phase 2 of the imaging suite was slated for 2028.
Salt Spring’s CRD director Gary Holman bristled at the changes, noting that of three projects removed from the 10-year plan, two had been on Salt Spring. Holman asked if a recently discussed needs assessment from Island Health staff had been completed, and if it supported the rationale that additional long-term care beds on the island were not necessary.
Boychuk said that needs assessment remained “underway,” noting the requirement to consider needs across all of Island Health’s communities.
“I don’t think I would share the view that it’s not necessary,” said Boychuk. “It’s simply that we do have to balance demand for services with scarce capital.”
While Lady Minto Hospital’s 29 current extended care units might be showing their age –– the most recent review by Accreditation Canada took place in 2014 –– there’s little question Salt Spring’s growing population is trending older.
Last year the Islands Trust contracted with Statistics Canada to localize census data, finding that as the island’s population grew –– 49.9 per cent between 1991 and 2021 –– 7.2 per cent of Salt Spring residents were people age 85 and over, up from 3.8 per cent in 2016. In addition, nearly 35 per cent were at least 65 years old –– up from just over 30 per cent.
Salt Spring’s median age during that same period shifted from 55.4 to 56.8.
Holman later said he has requested a meeting with CRHD, Island Health and Lady Minto Hospital Foundation representatives to discuss the issue.