A $100,000 grant from the Ministry of Health will assist the Mountain Resort Municipality of Sun Peaks to outfit their new community health centre with medical equipment, supplies and furniture, Health Minister Terry Lake announced today.

“The Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality, Sun Peaks Health Association and the community have been working hard at making their vision of expanded health services for  families, residents and tourists a reality,” Lake said. “In 2014, we supported their work towards a plan for the new centre, and now this funding will help them outfit the centre with high-quality medical equipment, needed supplies and furniture, making the new centre a place that will support the health of Sun Peaks residents and visitors for years to come.”

The Sun Peaks Health Association created a small temporary health centre in 2002 to serve the community. The new facility will be located on the lower floor of a two-storey building of 930 square metres (10,000 sq. ft.) that will house a doctor’s office and examination rooms, as well as other health services, plus a triage area for accidents. A major component of the health centre will be family doctor services for the communities of Sun Peaks, Whitecroft and the Upper Louis Creek Valley. The upper floor will also house the Sun Peaks ski patrol staff and will be paid for by the Sun Peaks Resort LLP.

“We hope to make our health centre one of the best-equipped small community clinics among mountain resorts in British Columbia,” said Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality Mayor Al Raine. “We are focused on tele-medicine equipment that will make it easy for patients to be diagnosed by specialists in major centres while remaining in Sun Peaks.”

As the local and tourist communities continue to grow, the Sun Peaks Health Association and municipality want to ensure they are proactively planning to meet long-term needs.

In May of 2014, the Ministry of Health provided $50,000 for the completion of a business plan. Now with this additional $100,000 in equipment funding, the municipality of Sun Peaks can start outfitting the facility with all of the necessities, including medical equipment and furniture, for a scheduled opening in early 2017.

Over the past 14 years, the Sun Peaks Health Association has raised $800,000 to support health services in Sun Peaks and will donate $500,000 to the capital costs of the new health centre. In addition, they have committed to continuing to fundraise this summer in order to furnish the building with modern equipment and supplies to meet range of services. The equipment fundraising goal is $400,000.

Addressing access to health care in rural areas is a government priority. That’s why the Ministry of Health has developed a variety of innovative solutions that focus on community-based health care for rural communities, including understanding population and patient health; developing quality and sustainable care models; recruiting and retaining engaged, skilled health care providers; and enabling strong tools and processes that allow innovation and flexibility in responding to the diversity of geographies across the province.