{"id":872403,"date":"2026-08-26T18:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/872403\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T18:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:34:09","slug":"not-enough-beds-nanaimo-hospital-expansion-highlighted-in-provincial-budget-consultation-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/872403\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not enough beds\u2019: Nanaimo hospital expansion highlighted in provincial budget consultation report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Not enough beds\u2019: Nanaimo hospital expansion highlighted in provincial budget consultation report<\/p>\n

Published 9:12 am Wednesday, August 26, 2026<\/p>\n

An expansion to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital was among the list of priorities expressed throughout B.C. for the upcoming 2027 provincial budget.<\/p>\n

Released on Aug. 11, the Budget 2027 Consultation report by the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services serves to identify key priorities for the next fiscal year, using input received through its consultations.<\/p>\n

Communities consulted included Smithers, Dawson Creek, Prince George, Cranbrook, Kelowna, Castlegar, Burnaby, Mission, Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo.<\/p>\n

The committee, in the resulting report<\/a>, recommended advancing the NRGH expansion, stating that \u201cthe proposed catheterization laboratory and new patient tower are important investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the document, multiple participants expressed support for proceeding with the expansion, including a new patient care tower and cardiac catheterization lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Nanaimo Regional Hospital District noted that the hospital does not have enough beds and Nanaimo is the largest centre in Canada without a cardiac catheterization lab,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

Among the committee\u2019s listed recommendations, it urged the province to \u201cadvance the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the only health-care item on the list, with others including making a clear construction timeline for the Burnaby Hospital Phase 2 redevelopment; funding and prioritizing high-barrier detoxification, addiction, and mental health treatment beds; as well as strengthen disease prevention by expanding access to vaccines and immunization programs, among many others.<\/p>\n

Following the 2026 budget document being released earlier this year, the Ministry of Infrastructure told the News Bulletin<\/a> that the government is advancing the development of a concept plan for a new tower and expansion of cardiac services at NRGH, which they estimated would take up to 18 months to complete.<\/p>\n

Donna Hais, chair of the Fair Care Alliance, an organization comprised of doctors, health-care advocates and politicians calling for equitable care north of the Malahat, said she feels encouraged by the mention, but remains \u201ccautious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern is I don\u2019t see timing around it, I don\u2019t see guidelines around it, I don\u2019t see next steps listed around it other than there needs to be an investment. We all know we\u2019re in concept planning now, which is excellent, but those of us who live in this region need to see some timing to know some serious planning is happening around that,\u201d Hais said.<\/p>\n

Residents, she said, can\u2019t stop the advocacy, because \u201cit very easily could fall off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to keep this at the forefront of peoples\u2019 minds, and we need to understand that we\u2019re in a critical situation right now, and the only way to rectify that is for commitment on all levels of government to invest here at our hospital,\u201d Hais said.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 24, the Fair Care Alliance is hosting a public health forum at 5 p.m. in the Vancouver Island Conference Centre.<\/p>\n

During the event, Hais said all municipal election candidates will be invited to attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be an education piece to understand how our health-care infrastructure is actually funded and where responsibilities lay,\u201d Hais said. \u201cIt is also going to be, in some ways, a wake-up call for those who are running to understand even though they do their due diligence in collecting their tax dollars they don\u2019t necessarily get a say in where those tax dollars are directed or the timing of those tax dollars being directed.\u201d<\/p>\n

jessica.durling@nanaimobulletin.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Not enough beds\u2019: Nanaimo hospital expansion highlighted in provincial budget consultation report Published 9:12 am Wednesday, August 26,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[903,49,48,84,36245],"class_list":["post-872403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-vancouver-island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872403","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=872403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}