KGH Site Update

Patient Care Tower

The construction of the new Centennial Patient Care Tower at Kelowna General Hospital continues to run ahead of schedule. In fact, Graham Construction, the company building the six-storey tower, just finished pouring the concrete for the roof. There will be a celebration to mark the accomplishment before the end of November.

The second floor, where the Outpatient Department will be, is currently 90 percent framed in and has had 70 percent of the electrical and mechanical rough-in work completed. The third floor – where the Operating Theatres and Renal Department will be – is about two-thirds framed and halfway through the mechanical and electrical work. Framing and electrical/mechanical fit-out of the fourth floor – the main mechanical and electrical equipment floor – has just begun.

Don’t forget, you can view time-lapse photographs of the construction on our website from a digital web camera. View the image at www.buildingpatientcare.ca/kghwebcam.

UBC/Parkade

In spite of a very, very tight schedule, Graham Construction and their sub-trades have put in a massive and impressive effort to complete the UBC Medical School Clinical Academic Campus on time for the planned handover to Interior Health on December 3. The building is currently being finished inside and out. Rooms are being completed and locked, ready for occupancy, and we expect to be able to start what is called “commissioning” on December 3.

What that means is there are a number of steps that are needed to prepare the building for occupancy. The whole move-in will take approximately two months.

It will be a very busy place in the next little while. The first to move in will be the KGH library, likely in mid-December. The UBC undergraduate medical program and postgraduate medical residents will move in during January. Meanwhile, furniture and audio/visual installation will also be going on.

Parking at KGH

Good news: the new parkade is expected to open in mid- to late-December. Public parking will be available in most of the parkade, with some of the upper levels reserved for staff.