Staff members from RIH pose with a construction beam, signed by hospital staff and physicians this week to mark the Topping Off milestone of the project. (Image Credit: Interior Health)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

topping off milestone

RIH Patient Care Tower construction progresses to full nine-storey height

Sep 19, 2020 | 9:33 AM

KAMLOOPS — Construction on the new patient care tower at Royal Inland Hospital reached a milestone in progress this week.

The concrete phase is now complete, and the tower has reached its full nine-storey height, according to Interior Health.

The Topping Off milestone was marked by RIH staff and community stakeholders signing a 12-foot steel beam before it was raised and put into place on the tower.

“Watching the Patient Care Tower progress since construction began has been uplifting,” states Thompson Regional Hospital District chair Ken Christian in a release. “As one of only two tertiary hospitals in Interior Health, RIH is vital to all residents in the Thompson Nicola Regional District and we are looking forward to the day it opens to patients in summer 2022.”

Construction on the $417 million dollar project began in September 2018, with Phase 1 expected to be complete by the summer of 2022. The nine-storey hospital tower will be equipped with single patient rooms, child and adolescent mental health services, maternal and child health services, respiratory therapy services, surgical suites, a mental health and substance use inpatient unit, and a rooftop helipad.

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Phase 2 renovations will begin after the tower opens to patients, and will include an expansion to the emergency department, pediatrics, post-anaesthetic recovery, and the morgue.