New ICU opening at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital

A new intensive care unit in Nanaimo, B.C., will start taking patients later this month, replacing an aging unit once called one of the worst ICUs in Canada.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the new 12-bed intensive care unit at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital will officially open to patients on June 28.

Dix was in Nanaimo today for an opening ceremony for the unit that will replace what he says is an outdated and undersized ICU, a10-bed facility built in 1970.

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He says the new $41.6-million unit includes larger single-patient rooms, overhead patient lifts and a family consulting room.

Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Sheila Malcolmson, who is also Nanaimo’s MLA, says the old ICU was reported in 2013 as one of “the most dangerous” in Canada and the new unit is greatly needed in the central Vancouver Island city.

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An external review that looked at three of Island Health’s ICUs said the physical condition of the Nanaimo unit was “by far the worst ICU we have seen in Canada.”