Medical learning centre opens

After years of making do with a portable trailer for an auditorium, the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia is now home to the "best hospital teaching facility in the province."

That's how Dr. David Snadden put it Monday during a grand opening for the new Learning and Development Centre.

Located off UHNBC's main entrance, the $10.5-million facility takes up 1,365 square metres and is undeniably impressive from the building's architecture to the state-of-the-art features it houses.

Those include a clinical simulation centre where, with the help of robotic patients that mimic a range of health concerns, students can get some hands-on experience before moving on to the real thing.

There are seminar rooms with a combined capacity of up to 140 people, video conferencing suites, group study areas, a library and a bevy of large-screen televisions to allow students to participate in lectures and seminars from far afield.

Although primarily for students in the Northern Medical Program, it will also be used by other medical professionals - doctors, nurses and lab and X-ray technicians - to hone and upgrade their skills.

Snadden recalled the concerted lobbying it took to bring the centre to UHNBC.

Although part of the plan since the NMP's beginning in 2003, the ball really got rolling in 2011 when a 200-seat auditorium was constructed at Kelowna's hospital while UHNBC remained stuck with a portable parked out back.

"I went to the Atco trailer on the windiest, coldest winter day I could find, when people were shivering and there was snow blowing through the cracks in the door, and we huddled there and we took photographs," Snadden said.

Those images became a centrepiece of a campaign that won UNHBC an auditorium and then some as advocates kept the pressure on for something even bigger and better than the small lecture theatre Victoria initially offered as a replacement.

"This to me is the best hospital teaching facility in the province of British Columbia," Snadden said, drawing applause from the dignitaries who gathered for the celebration.

"It's modern, it's collaborative, it's all about learning and it's all about people working together and the 10 years has been well worth the wait."

Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond acknowledged the key role the Northern Medical Society played in bringing the centre to Prince George.

"It's really about saying if we want students to come here and study as part of the Northern Medical Program, we have to have equity of service and quality of infrastructure," Bond said.

Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris said the centre is "another brick in the foundation of the future of Prince George for generations to come."

Dr. Robert Tower, now completing a two-year residency at UHNBC, is pleased with the outcome.

"This investment, what it tells me as a student and as a resident, is that I'm valued," Tower said. "More importantly than that though, and I think this is a key point to take home, it tells the people of northern British Columbia that they're valued."

NMP students will begin using the centre this fall.