Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is asking for nearly $800,000 for a 40 per cent share from Powell River Regional Hospital District for five projects the health authority has identified for upgrading facilities in the qathet region.
At the April 14 hospital district meeting, Johan Marais, regional director, capital asset management and planning at VCH, made a presentation to the hospital board, providing a capital plan update and a request for the cost share for capital upgrades.
Marais said an historical lack of capital investment has resulted in infrastructure deficits requiring significant investment.
“We are at a point where there is a critical need to really upgrade our poor infrastructure across our aging facilities,” said Marais. “We are currently looking at developing deferred maintenance strategies that will address some of our larger initiatives, such as elevator replacements or upgrades, piping, roofs, et cetera.”
Marais said within the foreseeable future, VCH is looking at seeking ministry of health approval for five major facilities, including the Evergreen Care Unit long term care replacement and expansion.
He said when looking at equipment, on an annual basis, approximately $40 million is invested, which is not sufficient for VCH to sustain. The health authority is heavily relying on hospital foundations and auxiliaries to support a significant number of equipment purchases, he said.
Marais then outlined its cost share requests for Powell River Regional Hospital District.
The first project is to modernize the clean and dirty dumbwaiters in Powell River General Hospital. The cost share request from the regional hospital board is $88,000.
There is an operating room mechanical room boiler and direct digital control upgrade of $128,640. Marais indicated that the existing equipment is at the end of its life.
The third request is for a high voltage breaker and transformer at the hospital, which is 25 years old and considered to be at the end of life.
There is a request to upgrade a generator paralleling gear controlling both backup generators serving the hospital, which requires replacement. The value of this project for the regional hospital board is $60,000.
Finally, there is the phase two replacement of the roof at the hospital, for $462,316. Marais indicated that during phase one, a roofing consultant was contracted and developed tender specifications. During the tendering process, the cost per square foot had nearly doubled from the original estimate due to supply chain challenges and impact of the pandemic, according to Marais.
He said the total cost estimate for the five projects is $1,979,390, with a 40 per cent cost share request of $791,756 from Powell River Regional Hospital District.
Regional hospital district chair CaroleAnn Leishman said the board would be receiving the presentation for information.
“I assume staff will be absorbing this and coming back to the committee at a future meeting with a report on this,” added Leishman.
qathet Regional District manager of financial services Linda Greenan said a motion would be in order to ask staff to bring a report forward for the cost share request. The motion carried unanimously.
At the March 30 regional hospital board meeting, directors voted that the board approve a further $118,356 be included in the hospital district’s 2022 budget to fulfill its 40 per cent cost share of VCH’s November 2020 cost share request, with the additional cost share being funded from reserve.
