New equipment and capital upgrades worth $3.4 million are coming to Sechelt Hospital, pending budget adoption.
A list of needed medical equipment was detailed by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) director Gerry Latham at the Jan. 23 Sunshine Coast Regional Hospital District meeting. Items requested totalled $1.1 million and ranged from ventilators and ECG machines to bladder scanners, patient-controlled anaesthesia pumps, colonoscopies and replacement patient beds. The purchases would be paid for from reserves built up through local taxation.
Regional hospital district directors also voted to spend $922,000 from taxation on a motor control centre-transfer switch and emergency power generator, the replacement of three 20-tonne chillers and an upgrade to the oxygen system at Sechelt Hospital. VCH will cover the remainder, as is typical when capital equipment purchases cost more than $100,000. The total cost for the three items is $2.3 million.
The 2020 budget is set for adoption in March.
