1 week Ago By Michael Potestio
Interior Health has some new asks for the Thompson Regional Hospital District in 2025, but there are no more cost overruns coming for the multi-phased Phil and Jeannie Gaglardi Tower project, according to one senior official. Phase 2 work on the project went over budget due to a lack of labour availability, supply chain delays and inflation, according to Interior Health, which, earlier this year, (40 per cent) of $40 million in added costs. The board that request, and the province covered the remainder.
Todd Mastel, IH executive director of business operations, confirmed to Castanet Kamloops that those cost overruns have now been dealt with and no more are expected. “There's always challenges, but we're progressing well and the space is turning out great,” Mastel said. Two projects that will be included in the 2025 funding request letter IH sends to the TRHD are a third and final phase of mechanical and electrical work as well as fixed equipment for the 12th and 13th operating rooms in the Gaglardi Tower.
Mastel said those two new operating rooms in the tower were being used as a temporary post-anesthetic recovery area, which is now moving to its permanent location in a renovated area of the main RIH tower. The first two phases of the mechanical and electrical work were approved a few years ago and are expected to be complete by June of 2026, delayed as a result of the previous overruns. Many Phase 2 renovations at Royal Inland Hospital remain on track to be done by the end of 2026.
and Phase 2 included renovations in the main hospital building. IH hopes to have the day care surgery area finished before Christmas, and a public concourse area completed by February, Mastel told the TRHD board on Thursday. The morgue renovation for Phase 2 is expected to be done in two parts — the first one next spring and the second by the summer of 2026.
Work in the medical imaging and vascular services department is expected to be complete by next summer and phases two through four of the new Teck emergency department, , should be done by fall 2026. Mastel said Phase 2 of the ER project involves finishing a new mental health area and a portion of a new acute treatment zone, which is opening next summer. Phase 3 is the remainder of the acute treatment zone to be done spring 2026 and phase 4, the new trauma and resuscitation zone, should be done by the fall of 2026.
Work on other departments also wrapped between June and October this year. Mastel noted the post anaesthetic recovery room, pediatrics and ambulance bay, as well as the new emergency department entrance, were all completed between this past June and October. included the new entrance, triage and minor treatments area renovation.
Gerry Desilets, RIH executive director of clinical operations, told the hospital board there is still some work that needs to be completed on the entrance in Phase 1 — including the creation of a straight path to emergency from parking that is expected to be complete by early March. Desilets said Phase 1 provides much better access to the ER, and noted the new sliding doors to patient beds replacing curtains help increase privacy and more effectively prevents the spread of viruses. He told the board RIH sees about 217 patients come through the ER every day and about 85 per cent of them now go through the newly renovated area.
He said patients are going through faster than before and emergency room wait times in the ER are decreasing..
