The Roman Forum was not built in a day, and it will no doubt take a year or two before Northern Health has its staff learning centre.
But once complete, the $10 million building will be the centrepiece for the meeting of medical minds -- giving doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech language pathologists a venue for guest speakers and the means to share their own knowledge and ideas with the rest of the world.
"Anything that improves the education of health care professionals, improves patient care," said Dr. Bert Kelly, executive director of the Northern Medical Society.
"The guy in Dease Lake can't be coming down here every afternoon for a meeting, but there's no reason why technology can't bring him into the room. It's vital for him to be up to date. One of the reasons rural areas have trouble recruiting doctors is they feel cut off and it's the same with nurses and all medical staff. They feel isolated, and they are, but technology's gotten around all that now."
Kelly said the new facility will put Prince George and its health facilities on a more level playing field with Kelowna, which received a provincially-built medical learning centre three years ago.
Unlike Kelowna's staff learning centre, the 150-seat Prince George building won't be shaped like a traditional amphitheatre, with seated guests looking down on a stage or central speaker's platform. Instead, to allow one or more meetings to run concurrently, the building will have moveable walls that can easily be changed to suit the needs of the user groups.
"We wanted a meeting area which would be versatile and it's not just for physicians, it's for everybody," said Kelly. "We need to be able to accommodate diverse groups."
Northern Health is considering several locations. One option would be to add a third floor to the Jubilee Lodge residential care facility at the south end of the hospital building closest to 15th Avenue, rather than a stand-alone building.
"Northern Health wants it to be a new building, so that would add to the cost, and the technology going into this thing is costly," said Kelly. "We see our medical community building up over the next few years because we do have to service northern British Columbia and know that this size of a building is definitely going to be required. The decision has been made to have it on the hospital campus, not the university campus."
