Office of the Premier
People in the North are one step closer to enhanced acute care and a dedicated cardiac unit with the approval of the business plan for a new patient-care tower at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC).
“We know we have work ahead of us to make world-class acute care more accessible in the North and we’ll keep working to get the job done,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “Local leaders have identified the need to strengthen cardiac care and we’re taking action to build up state-of-the art cardiac services close to home. As our population grows and ages, in Prince George and throughout the province, we’re investing in health care to meet current and future demand.”
Built in 1958, the hospital is outdated and too small to serve the needs of Prince George and the surrounding region. The redevelopment will more than double the current number of beds for surgical, mental-health and cardiac services from 102 to 211. This will address the three areas most in need of upgrades and allow for better co-ordinated patient care.
Cardiac care, currently dispersed throughout the hospital, will be centralized in the 11-storey acute-care tower with a new six-bed cardiac-care unit and a new 20-bed cardiac step-down unit. Along with interventional cardiac services, northern residents will have better access to the critical cardiac care they need closer to home.
The tower will also house a state-of-the-art surgical unit with 47 new beds, bringing the total to 102, and it will increase the size and number of operating rooms from seven to 12. An expanded medical device and reprocessing department will add to the improved surgical capacity and create a more efficient surgical environment.
To meet the need for mental-health and substance-use services, the number of treatment beds will increase by 36 to a total of 83, including 11 youth psychiatric-assessment beds, four brief-intervention beds, 36 adult psychiatric beds and 32 withdrawal-management beds.
The tower will be located on the southeast corner of the UHNBC campus on the site of the health unit building between Edmonton and Winnipeg streets. Early work has begun with the start of construction on a 471-space parkade next to the BC Cancer Centre for the North.
The next stage in the building of the patient-care tower is the procurement process. Construction is expected to begin in fall 2026 and be completed in summer 2031.
This expansion of the UHNBC is being supported by a significant contribution from the Fraser-Fort George Regional Hospital District.
This builds on government’s investments in the North, including new and expanded hospitals in Terrace, Fort St. James, Dawson Creek and Quesnel.
Quotes:
Ciro Panessa, president and CEO, Northern Health –
“This is a great announcement for the North. Not only will patients benefit from significant improvements to cardiac, surgical and mental-health services, but our teams providing care will have new, state-of-the-art spaces to continue to stabilize and grow these services.”
Joan Atkinson, board chair, Fraser-Fort George Regional Hospital District –
“The construction of the patient-care tower is a huge step forward in improving health-care services in the North. The Fraser-Fort George Regional Hospital District is appreciative of the efforts of all parties, including regional hospital-district staff, who worked together to see this project come to fruition and we are excited to see it progress.”
Kyle Sampson, acting chair, Fraser-Fort George Regional Hospital District –
“The Fraser-Fort George Regional Hospital District has been a leader in advocating for health-care infrastructure and resources that meet the needs of residents across the North. Today, we are proud to highlight the results of that hard work in our joint announcement of the new patient-care tower. We are investing in the needs of our residents to provide greater access to critical health resources, primarily a state-of-the-art cardiac unit, a modernized and expanded surgical unit along with enhanced mental-health and substance-use facilities, and more. We have worked hard and are proud of the negotiations we employed to move this project forward with a fair deal for our residents.”
