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Supported by Richmond First members and community leaders Elsa Wong and Peter Liu, city councillors Bill McNulty, Linda McPhail and Derek Dang are calling for a new acute care tower at Richmond Hospital.
Photo by Don Fennell
Richmond First calls for new acute care tower
Richmond First is calling on the province to
commit, immediately, to building a new acute care tower at Richmond Hospital.
At a morning press conference Tuesday,
Richmond First city councillors Derek Dang, Bill McNulty and Linda McPhail
explained that nearly 2,000 people have already signed a public petition
calling on Premier John Horgan to include the request in the 2018 provincial
budget.
McNulty, in fact, called for “an entirely new
hospital.”
“We started our petition a little over two
months ago hoping to get 1,100 signatories asking the premier and his
government to commit to a new acute care tower. We’re already at nearly 2,000
and it’s still going strong,” McNulty said. “Our community is united calling
for a replacement of our 50-year-old acute care tower, and today we’re calling
on the premier to act.”
Since launching on Nov. 30, more than 1,842
people have signed the Richmond First Voters Society petition.
“Nearly $27 million has already been raised
by Richmond Hospital Foundation to support the new tower,” said McPhail. “We
have nearly 2,000 people signing a petition, and doctors and medical
professionals are sounding the alarm about the need for change.”
Since the 2017 provincial election, the
government has committed to move to business planning to construct new
hospitals in Williams Lake and Terrace, and have started a concept plan for a
new hospital in Surrey.
A concept plan for a new acute care tower in
Richmond was delivered by Vancouver Coastal Health to the provincial government
in early 2017. To date, no further action has been taken.
“Richmond Hospital has one bed available per
1,000 people living in Richmond, the fewest of any hospital in B.C.,” said
Dang. “We’re not asking for special treatment, we’re asking for equal
treatment.”
Richmond Hospital opened Feb. 26, 1966 with
132 beds for under 50,000 residents. Today, with 233 beds, it serves 220,000
residents.
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