Concerns arose last week as the capital project to upgrade the Emergency Room at the Invermere and District Hospital (IDH) seem to have been put to the back burner.
Both Interior Health Authority and the Regional Hospital District (RHD) board have given their full support to the upgrades at the IDH ER, with the RHD ranking it as its number one capital project for under $5 million. However, now priority lists from health authorities are being submitted to a provincial Capital Planning Secretariat, who will oversee final ranking.
“Obviously we’re not happy with that,” said Invermere mayor Mark Shmigelsky, who believes the project will now be ranked as a lower priority. “I was quite disappointed that the province would just take it away.”
It is unclear as to what level of involvement Capital Planning Secretariat held previously, if any at all, in making these decisions. Since the health authorities were established, they have been given capital dollars and allowed to prioritize their own projects, with final approval coming from the Ministry of Health.
As the proposed upgrades to the IDH ER is a capital project, 40% of the funding would come from the RHD with the remaining amount being contributed by the province.
Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald believes that the change in ranking will not recognize the need for the upgrades to Invermere’s ER.
“The government is responsible for getting health care right, and we’ve lived with the mess the Liberals created in health care for seven years now. Just when Invermere gets to the top of the list, the Liberals change the rules,” said Macdonald.
Regional District chair Greg Deck, who also serves as a director on the RHD says he continues to advocate for the Invermere ER upgrades, while noting that there seems to be a different process at work for prioritizing projects and that it isn’t a clear situation right now.
Mark McKee, Liberal candidate in the upcoming provincial election, toured the facility in October and was planning to use his connections to see the upgrades come to fruition. McKee says he will continue to work on the issue, while now looking into why the proposed upgrade was moved from Interior Health’s funding list to the provincial funding list. He is meeting with Minister of Health George Abbott in Revelstoke on Nov. 28 to discuss matters.
Both Deck and Shmigelsky, as well as Macdonald and McKee will continue to push for the upgrades.
“We’re all doing the best we can to make this a funding priority,” said Shmigelsky.