If they’re elected, the B.C. NDP will first fix up Burnaby Hospital and then spend $2.1 billion to replace it, according to party leader John Horgan.
Horgan was at the local health-care facility Tuesday to announce Burnaby would get a new hospital as part of the New Democrat’s $10-billion capital plan.
“Christy Clark’s neglect has resulted in emergency room overcrowding and hallway medicine at facilities like Burnaby Hospital,” Horgan said. “She’s failed to fix the services people count on. We stand for public health care, where and when you need it. We always have and we always will.”
Details around where the new hospital would be built and what would happen to the existing facility, however, were scarce.
At another Burnaby election stop Wednesday, the NOW asked Horgan what his party would do with the renewal and expansion plans already in place.
“We’re going to make sure that the existing facility is up to a standard that the people of Burnaby can be comfortable with, but that hospital needs to be replaced, and we’re going to build a new one,” Horgan said. “It’s part of our capital plan. We’re going to work with the health authority; we’re going to work with municipal leaders and make sure we get that done.”
Burnaby Hospital, parts of which are 65 years old, has gotten a lot of attention around election time for more than a decade.
The shortcomings of the facility’s infrastructure are well-documented, dating back to at least 2001, when a master plan recommended replacement of the north and west wings.
A year ago, the B.C. Liberal government announced it was starting work on a concept plan for the renewal of key facilities at hospital, sparking media reports the hospital had been awarded a $622-million upgrade and expansion, but the concept plan was only the first step toward getting funding for only the first phase of the aging facility’s master site plan – a document completed more than four years ago.
The Liberal government re-announced the plan last month, saying it had now moved into the business plan stage. They then sweetened the pot by adding an $8.8-million “interim sustainment plan” for a new emergency mental-health and substance-use zone and the consolidation of outpatient clinics currently scattered around the hospital.
Asked if it was feasible to scrap the planning already completed around the renewal and expansion of the hospital and start from scratch, NDP Burnaby-Edmonds candidate Raj Chouhan said he was skeptical of the Liberal’s plan, which has not yet been made public.
“Where is that plan? Is that really a plan or is it just an election plan?” he said. “It’s really difficult to make a comment about that so-called plan before seeing it in detail. I really want to see what they have done, what it’s all about.”
Despite the lack of traction the NDP’s $2.1 billion hospital replacement announcement has gotten in the media, Chouhan said the aging facility is a major concern of local voters.
“On the doorsteps, when we talk to people, that’s what people are talking about, because it’s so crowded, so congested, that hospital. People have to wait for hours and hours.”
Richard Lee, B.C. Liberal incumbent for Burnaby-North, did not respond to requests for comment before press time.
