It appears Interior Health is left to figure out the next steps to finish construction on phase two of the Royal Inland Hospital upgrades.
The Thompson Regional Hospital board declined a funding request from Interior Health last week after they asked the board to fork up $ 16-Million to cover 40 per cent of the overages on the second phase of renovations at the hospital in Kamloops.
Hospital Board Chair Mike O’Reilly says the total $40 Million overrun, should have been brought up earlier.
“If you look at the total amount of the overrun, we were not notified until approximately two to three months ago that (the board’s requested share) was a $16 million cost overrun that had been building for over two years,” he said.
“For that to come out of the blue with a two-month runway is next to impossible to do unless we want to go for a close to a 30 per cent tax increase this year.”
O’Reilly goes on to emphasize the board is frustrated the bill came out of the blue.
“We were not notified. I also spoke with past hospital chair Ken Christian if he had been notified – because it crosses both of our tenures – and he had not been notified either about any cost overruns,” said O’Reilly.
“This very much came out of the blue and that doesn’t help us with predictability and stability and that’s what residents require.”
O’Reilly says with rising costs, and other large health care projects in the works – including the Kamloops Cancer Centre – the funds to pay for renos that went significantly over budget is not something taxpayers can afford at this time.
“At this point, that’s what is in front of Interior Health, and they’re gonna have to figure out how to make that up,” he added.
“Possibly as our reserves grow –which we are attempting to build — there may be some reserves in the future we can contribute to this amount.”
Meanwhile, the Thompson Regional Hospital District approved a major increase to hospital taxes to cover a number of big-ticket projects at Royal Inland Hospital, including the Cancer Care Centre.
Taxes will increase by five per cent a year for the next five years – 2024 until 2028 – with the money also going towards building reserves and any future capital requests like the still to be determined Phase 3 of renovations at Royal Inland Hospital.
