The new Executive Director at Royal Inland Hospital says 2024 is shaping up to be an exciting year for the Kamloops facility.

Gerry Desilets tells Radio NL the first in a series of renovations at RIH – which began in the fall of 2022, after the $417-million Phil and Jennie Gaglardi Tower was opened – is set to be competed later this spring.

“The post-anaesthetic recovery room will be opening in April of 2024,” he said. “Our new pediatrics unit will open in June, and our emergency entrance with triage and waiting areas, we’re looking at September.”

Desilets says the new emergency department will have the biggest effect on the public, saying it will be the most “exciting part” for the community.

“It’s a brand new entrance, it’s a brand new triage and new care area,” he said. “It will really expand our space and provide a really beautiful area for people to get care in. The full emergency department will be completed in the fall of 2026.”

Desilets also says the first phase of a large renovation to the RIH morgue will also be completed this year, with the second phase expected to be done next year.

“Hospitals are built differently now than they were many years ago,” Desilets said, of the overall renovation work.

“We really focus on infection control and private rooms for patients just to make sure that patients have a better experience when they’re in the hospital. It really allows us to bring things up to state of art equipment, providing nice, new space for the teams to work in.”

Construction on a new cancer centre at Royal Inland Hospital is expected to begin next year, and be complete by 2028.

That $359-million project will also include upgrades to expand existing cancer care services at RIH, including an expanded pharmacy as well as the relocation and expansion of the Community Oncology Network clinic from the hospital’s south tower to the northwest wing, next to the pharmacy.

Those renovations are expected to be “substantially” complete by 2029.