Canadian Design and Construction Report staff writer
Graham Design Builders LP has been awarded a contract to rebuild Cariboo Memorial Hospital in British Columbia.
“Signing this contract is a major milestone in the Cariboo Memorial Hospital redevelopment project,” said Adrian Dix, provincial minister of health. “Soon people will see shovels in the ground as the modernized and expanded hospital begins to take shape.
“With a new emergency department, mental-health unit and cancer department, the redeveloped CMH will be a gamechanger for decades to come.”
Construction will happen in two phases. Phase 1, which includes the addition, will begin in spring 2023 and is expected to finish in fall 2026. Phase 2, which includes renovations to the existing hospital, will begin in fall 2026 and is scheduled to be complete in early 2029.
The budget for the project is more than $366 million and will be shared by the province and the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District.
Designed by KMBR Architects, the addition at CMH will be designed and constructed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification at a minimum.
The project includes a new emergency department with 23 treatment spaces, an increase of 12; two trauma treatment bays; a seclusion room; an ambulance carport and a separate public entrance. Other features:
- A new medical/surgical inpatient unit with 36 beds, an increase of 16.
- A new mental-health and substance-use inpatient unit with eight single-occupancy rooms and a patient seclusion room.
- An expanded ambulatory care and oncology unit with 16 renovated treatment spaces.
- An expanded maternity and women’s health unit with four single-occupancy rooms for maternity care, two nursery rooms and two women’s health beds in private rooms. The maternity area will allow parents to stay in the same room with their babies until they are ready to go home.
- An expanded pharmacy, providing additional space for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
- An interfaith sacred space, which will allow for traditional cultural and healing practices.
- 71 new parking stalls.
“There are many dedicated people at Interior Health who have been working in collaboration with Aboriginal, community and Regional Hospital District partners to bring this project to this important next step to enhance health services in the region,” said said Susan Brown, president and CEO, Interior Health. “The much-anticipated Cariboo Memorial Hospital expansion will improve access to many types of health-care services for people in Williams Lake and throughout the Cariboo-Chilcotin,”
The expanded hospital will include a new emergency department, medical/surgical in-patient unit and mental-health and substance-use in-patient unit as well as an expanded ambulatory care and oncology unit, maternity and women’s health unit and pharmacy. The hospital will also include administrative, educational and training spaces for the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine.