Renovations at the existing Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops are still on schedule to get underway next year.

Director of Clinical Operations at RIH, Tracie Rannie, says it is part of Phase 2 of Patient Care Tower project, with Phase 1 expected to wrap up next summer.

“Phase 2 is expansion of the emergency department. They do excellent work through a small space, but this will help increase the size and give again, just a really nice space for patients and families and staff to work in,” Rannie said.

“The post-anesthetic room, we’re transitioning, so we will be using some of the new space as we transition to the old space, and it will take about 18 months to complete that, but then we’ll have a new post-anesthetic room. And then of course pediatrics, and the morgue.”

Rannie says work on Phase 2 of the RIH expansion project is already underway, noting work on the Patient Care Tower itself is about 75 per cent complete.

“So for example, the emergency team is working on the design so the actual functionality of the space, and those conversations are happening with pediatrics and PAR as well, and that is just part of the process,” she added.

“We’ll move into commissioning and then a few months after we commission the new tower, they’ll start the actual construction of those areas and then that will take approximately two years.”

Construction on the patient care tower – the largest project in the history of Kamloops at $417-million – is set to wrap up next summer with Phase 2 renovations then expected to be completed by 2024.