The province has announced that a bigger and better emergency department at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital is now open. The province says it includes a new registration area and main lobby, a larger triage and trauma area, and improved high acuity unit rooms, which provide enhanced infection prevention-control measures, and better patient privacy.
Funding for the upgraded emergency department includes $9.9 million from the province and $6.6 from the Northwest Regional hospital district. They say the joint $16.5-million investment reflects a unified approach to meeting the community’s growing need for high-quality, accessible emergency services.
The emergency department at the Prince Rupert hospital serves an average of 43 patients a day with approximately 16,000 visits per year. It has been plagued with closures in recent years, causing serious service disruptions to the communites of Prince Rupert, Port Edward, four coastal Tsimshian communities and Haida Gwaii.
The province says the upgrades to the emergency department at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital are part of government’s work to improve and expand access to health-care infrastructure in communities throughout B.C.