There will be parking changes at Royal Inland Hospital as the elevators at the Clinical Services Building will be out of service until the end of the month due to an unexpected equipment failure.

Interior Health says the building access of Columbia Street has five flights of stairs, and people who have difficulty in climbing stairs are being asked to plan ahead and consider alternate locations.

While delays are to be expected, there will be additional staff and volunteers on hand to help patients and visitors safely reach their destination.

“Interior Health apologizes for the inconvenience this outage will cause, and are working with vendors to resolve the issue and get elevators back online as quickly as possible,” the health authority said in a statement.

Parking changes:

In the interim RIH patient/visitor parking has been moved to the upper staff parkade above the hospital, while staff parking has been moved to the CSB – IH says there will be signs in place and traffic controllers will assist drivers in peak hours.

“There will be no parking fees at Royal Inland Hospital until the elevators are back in service,” noted Interior Health.

As well, there will be no public parking in the CSB parkade for the duration of this outage. Urgent Primary Care and Learning Centre (UPCLC) are being asked to find other arrangements or be dropped off at the building for the duration of the elevator outage.

“Transit users who are dropped on Columbia Street and require assistance, need to plan ahead accordingly,” said the IH statement.