The Fair Care Alliance is asking for more details after B.C. NDP leader David Eby's campaign promise of a new patient tower at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
The Fair Care Alliance coalition of community members – including health care workers, business leaders, elected officials and others – has been advocating for a full-service patient tower and cardiac cath lab since the group was formed earlier this year.
Donna Hais, the alliance's chairperson, said the promise "gets us very excited."
"The Fair Care Alliance is very pleased to hear that Mr. Eby and the NDP have clearly heard the voice of our community and … have now clearly seen the deficit in our health-care infrastructure and they're prepared to invest here; however, we're looking for next steps," Hais said. "We would like more details, we need scope, scale and dates. We want to know the how, when and where this will all be happening."
The alliance estimates that the tower will cost about $1.7 billion, with 40 per cent a responsibility of regional hospital district taxpayers, while the province is responsible for directing the remaining 60 per cent. Ian Thorpe, chairperson of the Nanaimo Regional Hospital District, previously said the hospital tax levy has increased to show the province that the region is willing to pay its share.
Hais said that the tower could take anywhere between eight to 10 years to build. The Fair Care Alliance, she said, is calling for a minimum of 600 beds.
"We're here to continue that conversation and continue bringing forward the community's voice on the desperate need for health-care infrastructure in our area."
During the announcement on Sept. 26, Eby acknowledged that there's additional work to do on improving health care in Nanaimo, mentioning the need for a cardiac catheterization lab, and said his party intends to keep working toward improvements.
Hais said this brings more questions.
"Where is the cath lab, is the cath lab part of the tower? We feel waiting that time frame would be too long, so we want the details of the plan. I believe the announcement was not just a random announcement, I believe … our local politicians care about health care here. We need to see the details of that."
The Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation is also celebrating Thursday's campaign promise. Barney Ellis-Perry, the foundation's CEO, said he was sitting down for supper with friends at a restaurant when his phone began "blowing up."
"At the highest level the foundation is thrilled that … this election promise has been made that will address the severe structural health-care deficit north of the Malahat and we really believe our generous donors will be excited about this and will come forward when asked many years down the road when we need to do a campaign to support a hospital tower," he said.
If the cath lab were to be included as part of the project, Ellis-Perry said the foundation would fundraise for a temporary cath lab or interim measure.
"But we don't know. There's just zero details at this point. So the foundation will be seeking to help support Island Health and raise money for whatever it is, whether that be a cath lab sooner or rather than later, we would like to focus on that, but then eventually we'll raise money to support the patient tower."
In the short term, Hais said the alliance wants similar commitments from other party leaders, namely John Rustad of the Conservative Party of B.C. and Sonia Furstenau of the B.C. Green Party. While neither party has promised a patient tower at NRGH, local Conservative and Green candidates have signed a pledge committing to work with other elected officials "in support of fair care for all of Vancouver Island including a cardiac cath lab and patient tower at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital."
"We're very pleased by that, but obviously we would also be looking for a higher-level commitment from leaders of the other two parties for them to acknowledge, as a whole, that they're committed to infrastructure spending in Nanaimo, to get us to the standard of care we need," Hais said. "Now is the time to be fleshing out those details."
