{"id":607224,"date":"2026-04-16T04:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/607224\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T04:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:27:12","slug":"hallway-health-care-persists-at-kelowna-general-hospital-as-hospital-floors-sit-empty-okanagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/607224\/","title":{"rendered":"Hallway health care persists at Kelowna General Hospital as hospital floors sit empty – Okanagan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kelowna, B.C., resident Nanci Macdonald has recovered from what was a serious kidney-related condition, saying she feels grateful for the care she received at Kelowna General Hospital<\/a> (KGH).<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was treated extremely well,\u201d Maqcdonald said. \u201cI\u2019m alive today because of the care of KGH<\/a> staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macdonald had been in and out of KGH for the past two years.<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s full of praise for doctors and nurses, she\u2019s not impressed about being treated in the hallway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was scary at times. Every code white would be right in front of my bed, running down the hallway. I would get that multiple times a day, \u201d Macdonald said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no privacy, no medical privacy as far as being able to talk to a doctor about your condition. Everybody heard it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Concerns about so-called \u2018hallway health care\u2019 have been expressed for years, but the issue was reignited Tuesday during question period in the legislature.<\/p>\n

Conservative MLA for Kelowna-Mission Gavin Dew asked why the problem persists while two hospital floors continue sitting empty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirteen years after Kelowna General Hospital Centennial Tower was opened, why is more than 50 beds\u2019 worth of expansion space on the fifth and sixth floors sitting empty and unfinished behind lock and key,\u201d Dew said.<\/p>\n

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Minister of Infrastructure Bowinn Ma acknowledged there is more work to do but did not specifically speak to the issues at KGH.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe know there is more to do and that\u2019s why Budget 2026 continues to invest in more major hospital projects,\u201d Ma said.<\/p>\n

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According to Dew, there are up to 50 patients in hallways at KGH during any given time<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s shocking is that unofficial hallway beds have become official beds,\u201d Dew said. \u201cEven though these beds have become a permanent fixture, they\u2019re not safe, they\u2019re not equipped to provide proper monitoring, they\u2019re not private, they\u2019re not dignified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dew added that after more than a decade, the public deserves to know if and when those two floors will open.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe additional space that was left on the fifth and sixth floors when the tower was completed was intended to be surge space as the needs of the hospital grew,\u201d Dew said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur population has grown substantially in the last 13 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Interior Health nor the province provided any timelines on the additional space opening up or why it is sitting unused.<\/p>\n

In an email to Global News Wednesday, Ma stated, \u201cWe recognize there are on-going concerns with patient space at Kelowna General Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister added, \u201cInterior Health regularly assesses regional healthcare needs \u2013 we will continue to work with them to address infrastructure priorities and make sure they are ready to support any expansion with the required staffing, equipment and other operational needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But many argue that expansion can\u2019t wait much longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of growing into the space that was built to accommodate the needs of a growing population, we\u2019re instead leaving people to languish in hallways,\u201d Dew said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kelowna, B.C., resident Nanci Macdonald has recovered from what was a serious kidney-related condition, saying she feels grateful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,15222,84,392,2081,229169],"class_list":{"0":"post-607224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-central-okanagan","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-kelowna","14":"tag-kelowna-general-hospital"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}