Hospital contracts awarded

Infusion Health has been awarded the $432.5 million construction contract for expansion of Vernon Jubilee Hospital and Kelowna General Hospital.

Provincial Health Minister, George Abbott, made the announcement Thursday.

The agreement is a fixed-price contract that will see Infusion Health will design, build, finance and maintain both facilities over the next 30 years.

Abbott says the company will also be responsible for building maintenance, lifecycle repair and renewal and project financing over the life of the contract.

Clinical, housekeeping and food services will remain in the hands of Interior Health.

The new patient care tower at Vernon Jubilee Hospital will expand and modernize services for patients, including new operating rooms, new emergency room, a new intensive care unit, a new maternity and pediatrics ward, an expanded and consolidated outpatient department and two new shelled-in floors for inpatient beds.

The new patient care tower at Kelowna General Hospital will include a new consolidated outpatient department, new emergency department, new operating rooms, a rooftop heli-pad, two shelled-in floors for inpatient beds, a new renal dialysis department and a clinical academic campus for a University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine.

Construction is expected to begin this fall.