Image Credit: Interior Health

By Doug Collins

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: New hospital tower won’t be the ‘saviour’ for health care

May 13, 2022 | 4:49 AM

IN TWO MONTHS, give or take, the new $417 million patient care tower at Royal Inland Hospital will open its doors.

It will have some nice new bells and whistles. The tower is supposed to modernize the Hospital.

I like some of the improvements.

It will be home to mental health and substance use units, new operating rooms, new labor and delivery rooms, and a neonatal intensive care unit. RIH says there will be inpatient units for neuroscience trauma and stroke, a new rehab unit, more parking and a helipad on the roof.

These are all wonderful additions that will provide better care. But there are other things that are nice, but far less beneficial.

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A brand new fancy-dancy entrance with a big new atrium. Hmmmm.

Private rooms, with a bathroom in each room. Nice to have, but not necessary in the grand scheme of things.

This tower will not solve the critical surgery waitlists. Because this tower only provides a small increase in operating room space. While the new facilities provide assistance for doctors, they don’t really matter to a patient who’s asleep.

One of the top orthopedic surgeons in the city had, at last report, more than 200 patients on his waiting list. How long do you think it will take him to deal with that, plus the hundreds of other patients being dealt with by other specialists?

And don’t lose sight of the fact that once the new tower is open, the current operating rooms will be torn down to help deal with another critical need, a new emergency department.

And finally, all this is happening at a time when human resources are at a critical low. Recently, there were times when 27% of care staff was off work.

So where do we get these people to take on this new load?

Creating new spaces for students is one idea. But it will take a while for those students to graduate, and unless we plow more money into the system, and build new facilities to teach more doctors and nurses, the problem will get.worse.

When the crowds are cheering in mid-July as the new tower opens, for many it will be just a half-hearted cheer.

I’m Doug Collins and that’s One Man’s Opinion.

Doug Collins has had a wide background in the broadcast industry, having done virtually every type of news and sports broadcasting, including news anchor, sports play-by-play, and editorialist. His “One Man’s Opinion” aired on TV from 1973- 2013. He retired from his management roles in the station in October 2018 but continues to write his column. In 2019, Doug was awarded the Freedom of the City, the highest honour a municipality can bestow upon a resident or organization.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.