RUN OF THE MILL
CENTS KEEPING BUSY
Tolko updates city council on the state / Page 2 of the lumber industry
Three new players signed so far in the off-season
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MERRITT HERALD FREE
TUESDAY, July 7, 2015 • MERR MERRITT RIIT TT N NE NEWSPAPERS EW EW WS SPAP PA P AP PE ER RS S
MMM, CANADA! Central Park was a flurry of activity last week as Merrittonians of all ages showed up to wish Canada a happy birthday. The Herald’s Ian Webster was there to capture the food, fun, and Canadian pride.
PHOTOS PAGE 8
IHA takes first step in hospital expansion Michael Potestio THE MERRITT HERALD
The first step in expanding the Nicola Valley Hospital and Health Centre’s emergency room has officially started. A request for proposals (RFP) for architectural and planning consultation services was released by the Interior Health Authority (IHA). The Ministry of Health via the IHA and the Thompson Regional Hospital District (TRHD) agreed to a 60-40 per cent split of the planning funding for conceptual plans, with the IHA supplying the lion’s share. Approximately $600,000 is being designated for these conceptual plans, the development of which is expected to take a year. Once these plans are in place, the project will be put on
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a Ministry of Health priority list, and capital funding will be needed to move the project forward from there. “We’ll work very hard to make sure it is near the top of the list. We certainly have lobbied hard to get to this stage, so that lobby will continue,” Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart told the Herald. The Interior Health Authority announced last fall that expanding the Merritt hospital’s emergency room is a top priority. TRHD chairman, Peter Milobar said it was a quick and easy decision for the TRHD board of directors to support the funds for these plans, knowing a request for capital funding would come afterwards. “We know as a board that request will be coming forward once we get a scope of the dollars from this plan, and I’m fairly confident that should be moving forward as well when
the day comes for that,” Milobar said. Tegart said the immediate goal is to develop a plan that will assess the physical space and health care service requirements for the emergency room. Patient privacy, infection prevention, control measures and patient access are expected to be considered during the planning process as well. Determining what the expansion will look like is something the experts that are hired to develop the conceptual plans will determine along with the cost of the project, IHA health services administrator for Thompson-Cariboo rural, Berni Easson said. “Perhaps they look at renovation, maybe an add on. We don’t know that yet,” Easson said.
See ‘ER expansion’ Page 2
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