The Surrey Board of Commerce (SBoT) is asking on the provincial authorities to step up funding for healthcare in what’s going to quickly be British Columbia’s largest metropolis.
The group launched a report Thursday warning that health-care services for the province’s quickest rising neighborhood are insufficient for its present and future wants.
“That is unacceptable for our workforce and residents,” board of commerce president and CEO Anita Huberman mentioned.
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“Residents can’t be handled inside our metropolis’s borders for the three main causes of loss of life, that are coronary heart assault, stroke and trauma … we’ve the best variety of youngsters, infants which are born in British Columbia, and we do no have specialty pediatric companies in our metropolis. They must be handled north of our bridge.”
Surrey had a inhabitants of 568,000 individuals as of the 2021 census, and in response to Huberman is including between 1,200 and 1,400 extra residents each month.
She mentioned town can also be the biggest vacation spot for newcomers to Canada, that means it’ll solely develop extra shortly underneath federal plans to welcome 500,000 new immigrants yearly.
The provincial authorities is within the early phases of constructing a brand new 168-bed hospital hospital with a 55-bed emergency room and most cancers centre at 5500 180 Avenue in Cloverdale.
Huberman mentioned the board of commerce is anxious the brand new facility and present Surrey Memorial Hospital can be under-resourced for the longer term.
B.C. Well being Minister Adrian Dix defended the province’s well being initiatives in Surrey, blaming the present state of affairs on the previous BC Liberal authorities.
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“The chief of the opposition, the previous minister of well being, basically bought off the land for a second Surrey hospital, there ought to be a second Surrey hospital right now, and there isn’t,” Dix mentioned.
“We took motion instantly.”
Dix mentioned the province has taken different steps to spice up healthcare within the metropolis, together with including three new MRI machines within the Fraser Well being area and opening two new pressing and first care centres in Surrey.
“We’ve considerably improved healthcare in Surrey and we’re not stopping now,” he mentioned.
The parcel of land proposed for a earlier iteration of the hospital was amongst many the previous BC Liberal authorities bought for just below $500 million between 2013 and 2015.
BC Liberal Opposition chief Kevin Falcon fired again, telling World Information his former authorities had poured half a billion {dollars} into upgrades at Surrey Memorial Hospital, and arguing the older hospital web site was scrapped as a result of it was not simply accessible.
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He accused the NDP of dragging its heels on a brand new hospital, noting the occasion is now in its second time period and has been in energy for six years.
The NDP’s new hospital will each be too small and can be equally poorly accessible, he added, arguing the province ought to construct a bigger facility alongside Fraser Freeway to align with the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain.
“You can construct a 500-bed hospital that will truly begin to take care of the wants of Surrey residents, and extra importantly, present easy accessibility so you will get the medical doctors, the nurses, the care aids to simply entry the hospital.
“The second hospital they’re promising is within the fallacious location, it solely contains 126 beds, and it wouldn’t even embody a maternity ward for the quickest rising neighborhood within the province. That is simply loopy. Frankly, the board of commerce is true. Surrey is severely understaffed and under-serviced when it comes to hospitals and well being care.”
Surrey’s new hospital is slated for completion in 2027.
The provincial authorities is about to unveil its subsequent provincial price range on Tuesday.
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