Construction of the much-anticipated replacement of Lakes District Hospital and Health Centre has yet to scratch the surface, but the wheels of that project are turning.
The provincial government on Thursday sent out a request for qualifications to narrow down the search for qualified team to build the 16-bed acute care facility, a project announced April 12.
Applicants who meet qualifications for building the hospital in Burns Lake will be later shortlisted in the request for the proposal process. The Northern Health Authority expects to have the successful builder identified by March 2013, and construction will begin shortly after that. The project is slated to be finished by the summer of 2015.
"Today is the first of many milestones in the process of building a new hospital in Burns Lake, all of which are exciting news for patients, families and hospital staff," said Health Minister Michael de Jong. "All across British Columbia we are building better patient care, including Northern B.C."
The new hospital is expected to cost between $50 million and $55 million, with 80 per cent of the tab picked by the province and 20 per cent provided by the Stuart Nechako Regional Hospital District.
The facility will provide services for acute care, emergency, diagnostic imaging, a medical laboratory and pharmacy. It will also be a procedure room large enough to be used as an operating room for emergency surgery.
The existing hospital was built in 1960. The new hospital will be rated as a Level 5 trauma centre, the lowest classification on the provincial trauma scale. It will serve a population of about 5,000, drawing from Burns Lake, Francois Lake, Topley, Granisle, Endako, Grassy Plains and several First Nations villages in the area.
