A $6-and-a-half million dollar renovation at the Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt has now been completed.

Speaking in Merritt today, BC’s Health Minister Adrian Dix says the newly-renovated emergency room is four times the size of the previous facility, at more than 5,300 square feet.

He says it has served about 8,500 people since it partially opened in October.

“And really why this is significant, it’s not a quantity question it’s a quality question. It’s separate spaces for patients when they come here, it’s privacy, it’s infection control, it’s more open space. The previous emergency room, when I visited not so long ago before all of this, was a small room, which dealt with thousands and thousands of people every year. And now we have an emergency room worthy of this community and the healthcare workers who work here,” Dix says.

“It makes it more easy to recruit to this community, because you’ve got this outstanding resource. And that’s what improved staffing does, whether it’s here, whether it’s Royal Inland, whether it’s Penticton, whether it’s Williams Lake, Quesnel.”

Dix says the hospital’s ER is important not just for locals but for travellers, as he points out it is at the centre of four major highway sections, including the Coquihalla north and southbound.