Interior Health says it was a smooth transition over to the new Patient Care Tower at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, which officially opened today, July 18.

Patients were taken to their new rooms on Sunday, something IH President and CEO Susan Brown called it a “sleek” move.

“It’s a major milestone that has taken years to get to,” she said. “As you can imagine, it is a fairly complex move and overall, very little hiccups.”

“There are always things you find out as [Chief of Staff] Dr. [Todd] Ring told me, sometimes the door will stay open too long but those are very minor things, so I think overall, what I’m hearing is there was a lot of happiness yesterday in the building.”

Construction on the RIH patient care tower began in the fall of 2018. With a price tag of $417 million, it is the largest capital project in the history of Kamloops.

“It’s been a long, long time coming,” Health Minister, Adrian Dix, added. “Now we’re at this point and it’s very exciting. It’s exciting to see the new tower.”

Speaking Monday, Brown said work to find staff to work in the Kamloops patient care tower is still ongoing.

Among other things, she pointed to a Travel Nurse Program being done in partnership with Northern Health, which is hoping to bring in nurses from other parts of the province to the Interior.

“The Lower Mainland [has a] much bigger population and [we are] hoping that some people can come here for a short period of time, or a longer period on a temporary basis,” Brown said. “It would be bringing people to Royal Inland from outside of Interior Health.”

The province also says it is working to add more healthcare aides as well as offering retention incentives and re-entry bursaries for people returning to nursing.

But in the meantime, Brown notes some workers at RIH have had to be redeployed to cover shortfalls, as and where needed.

According to Interior Health’s job portal, RIH has 220 jobs posted as of Monday afternoon, including positions for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and care aides.

“I heard from Dr. Ring this morning that we’ve actually got physicians coming to the community,” Brown added.

“They know the challenges, and one of the things that continues to really impress me about Royal Inland is the commitment and the dedication of the people here. That is why people come here and love to work here”

More to come