Construction has begun on a new medical imaging centre at the Delta Hospital.
The new facility will be two-and-a-half times larger than what’s currently in place, and will be able to accommodate 32,000 more patients each year, according to Fraser Health.
It’s an expansion the health authority says is badly needed. The Delta Hospital needs diagnostic services for about 90,000 patients every year, up from just 14,000 four decades ago, it said.
“I don’t think it’s really going to impact the wait times. What it means is that we’ve increased the capacity to have patients come to us,” said Delta Hospital interim executive director Teresa O’Callaghan.
“Right now, in the community for example, if tests need to be done, we can’t accommodate all the demands for the tests because we don’t have the equipment space to do so.”
The project is budgeted at $15.2 million, with funding to come largely from the Delta Hospital Foundation and Fraser Health.
The new Peter C. and Elizabeth Toigo diagnostic services building is slated to open in 2019.