Construction is complete for the Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower at Royal Inland Hospital (RIH), which will improve access to health care services in Kamloops and throughout the Thompson, Cariboo and Shuswap regions.

EllisDon was selected by Interior Health in 2018 to design, build, partially finance and maintain the tower. Facilities maintenance at Royal Inland Hospital has transitioned to EllisDon Facilities Services Inc., which will provide maintenance services at RIH for 30 years.

“Our government is a proud supporter of this major project,” said Adrian Dix, minister of health, “When this new tower opens to patients in July 2022, residents in this region will have access to quality public health care in a modern, state-of-the-art facility.”

Designed with direct input from local health-care workers, the nine-storey tower will help streamline the way people access services in the hospital. There will be one main entrance and a spacious facility that will allow staff to provide world-class care in a space designed to modern standards. The tower includes single-patient rooms with their own washrooms, large spaces for families to gather and the ability for Indigenous smudging practices to occur in patient rooms.

There will be a new operating room and surgical services suite, more beds, medical surgical inpatient units, respiratory therapy services and a new rooftop helipad that will eliminate the need for an ambulance as patients can be brought directly to the trauma rooms in the tower.

As well, the tower will have a mental-health and substance-use inpatient unit, child and adolescent mental-health services, obstetrical services, labour, delivery and a neo-natal intensive-care unit as well as a first-floor atrium and patient registration area.

Each floor will feature a spirit animal motif as selected by Secwépemc Elders and supported by Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief and Council. The first floor will also feature a cultural wall, which will be an artistic representation of the Indigenous communities that make up Secwepemcúlecw.

Once the tower opens, Phase 2 will begin to include renovation and expansion to the emergency department at the hospital as well as enhancements to pediatrics and post-anesthetic recovery.

The cost of the project is approximately $417 million. The provincial government contributed $203.5 million, the Thompson Regional Hospital District contributed $172 million, Interior Health contributed $21.6 million and the RIH Foundation provided $20 million, which will go toward the purchase of equipment.