The Mayor of Kamloops has a couple of ideas to repurpose parts of Royal Inland Hospital, once the new patient care tower is operational.

Ken Christian thinks it would be a good idea to have a cancer care unit in the city.

“I’m concerned about the number of Kamloops residents that travel to Kelowna for radiation oncology,” he said. “I think that one of those linear accelerators or perhaps two of them could be installed in Kamloops and over time save us that drive to get that type of care.”

Christian is also hoping to see expanded cardiac care unit, which he says is also needed Kamloops.  He says a small cardiac care unit is set to open in the old Royal Inland Hospital building

“But we need more cardiac care particularly the diagnostics here in Kamloops,” added Christian. “I don’t think we are at the open heart surgery level yet, but we certainly can improve and limit the amount of time that a lot of our people spend on the road travelling to and from Kelowna.”

And he says those repurposing discussions will happen over the next few years, as the new patient care tower is being constructed.

The new tower is expected to be completed in 2022.