There is now room for more patients with serious health problems at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
The new “high-acuity” unit not only has a higher capacity than the one it replaced, but it comes with extensive improvements that are having a direct impact on staffing.
The new 12-bed high-acuity unit at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH) for patients with complex needs, those who need more care than a regular hospital ward but not as much as they’d receive in intensive care.
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Island Health says it’s got all the bells and whistles and is a vast improvement from the previous space.
“It is a game-changer in terms of our ability to provide care for the patients and the families that need it,” said Jane Marriott, Island Health’s clinical lead for the high-acuity unit.
The new unit replaces an interim one built during the COVID-19 pandemic but also adds four additional beds.
The improvements are extensive, from a lift that can help patients to the private bathrooms and showers in every room, to expandable beds so loved ones can sleep with a patient, to having enough plug sockets.
“We had a lot of power bars and so tripping hazards. We were crawling under beds trying to make it neat and tidy, and it’s hard to do so when you don’t have the ability to plug things in when you need to, and so that was very challenging,” said Marriott.
The opening of this $18.5 million unit comes just over two years after the opening of a new 12-bed intensive care unit at the hospital, which cost $41.6 million. The hospital’s old ICU was deemed the most dangerous in Canada in 2013.
“Already this is having an impact on health care worker recruitment and retention,” said Sheila Malcolmson, Nanaimo’s MLA.
“It’s a huge leap forward, and we couldn’t have done it if we hadn’t done it together.”
While these latest additions are desperately needed, and construction is also now underway on a new cancer unit on site, there are still calls for improvements in other areas, including heart services and a new patient tower.
“Know that your three regional MLAs are pushing very hard, the finance minister, the infrastructure minister, the health minister, to make sure that those projects advance,” said Malcolmson, on behalf of herself, MLA George Anderson and MLA Stephanie Higginson, who were also speaking at the unit’s opening.
Island Health says improved cardiac services for NRGH are also on its radar.
“Right now we’re working with our clinicians in the health authority, working with our partners to develop a plan, working with Cardiac Services BC for services across the Island, which would include looking at the implementation of cardiac catherization north of the Malahat, but those are internal conversations right now,” said Jamie Braman, Island Health’s VP of people and communications.
The new high-acuity unit will begin accepting patients on Aug. 28.