Nanaimo's Hospital Can't Wait: Cardiac Care First, and a Fair Deal on Who Pays
Nanaimo Regional General Hospital's patient tower opened in 1963, when it served a city of about 15,000 people and roughly 40,000 across the region. Today that same building serves more than 113,000 people in Nanaimo and over 190,000 across the Regional District of Nanaimo, and it is the referral hospital for some 460,000 people north of the Malahat. The hospital also serves the largest proportion of seniors per capita of any region in Canada. We've known for decades that this hospital needs a major expansion. The question now is how quickly we can get it built, and who pays for it.
The hospital runs over capacity as a matter of routine. A tower designed for about 340 patients has held more than 400, with patients cared for in hallways and converted storage spaces. That isn't good for patients, and it isn't good for the doctors, nurses and staff working in those conditions. A modern, expanded hospital is also one of the best tools we have to attract and keep health care workers in our region.
As a city councillor, I also sit on the Nanaimo Regional Hospital District board. When I joined the board after I was elected in 2022, there were five major capital projects on the priority list including a new intensive care unit, a cancer centre, an emergency cardiac unit (cath lab) , a new patient tower and a new long term care facility. Under B.C.'s Hospital District Act, a law dating back to 1967, regional hospital districts (in other words, local property taxpayers) pay up to 40 per cent of the capital cost of hospital projects. For a new patient tower and an emergency cardiac care unit that's 40 per cent of an estimated $1.6 billion. The ICU is $60 million, the cancer centre is $300 million and the Long term care facility is $285 million. That isn't fair. NRGH serves everyone north of the Malahat, but only taxpayers in the Regional District of Nanaimo carry that 40 per cent burden. Other regions have negotiated better: for the new patient tower in Prince George, the regional hospital district got its share cut from 40 per cent to under 22 per cent. We're pushing the Province for a fairer deal here too.
Paying for these projects has been harder because previous hospital boards didn't raise the hospital tax gradually to build reserves. The current board has had to catch up, which is why the hospital tax has been the biggest increase on your tax bill in recent years. This March, I voted for a 21 per cent increase in the 2026 hospital levy, about $539 for the average home, up from $454. I didn't take that lightly. But the projections in front of the board showed that a 10 per cent increase instead would have cost roughly $175 million more in interest. Putting off the hospital tax never saved anyone money. It just meant paying more, later, for a hospital we needed years ago.
We are making real progress. A new 12-bed intensive care unit opened at NRGH in 2023, followed by a new 12-bed high acuity unit in 2025. The new BC Cancer centre is under construction, with the Province covering 100 per cent of the cost, and it will bring radiation therapy close to home when it opens in 2028. Construction of a 306-bed long-term care home in Lantzville started in September, and it will free up beds at the hospital.
The Province committed to a new patient tower and cath lab in 2024, and Island Health began concept planning this February. The hospital board hasn't waited. We've paid for the concept plan, and we've offered to advance $55 million to speed up construction of the emergency cardiac care unit cath lab. It can't come soon enough. Greater Victoria has roughly ten times as many cardiologists as NRGH, and right now people are needlessly dying from heart attacks because they must be sent to Victoria or Vancouver for life-saving cardiac care when every second counts.
What Is a Cath Lab, and Why Does Nanaimo Need One?
A cardiac catheterization lab, or cath lab, is a specialized procedure room where a cardiologist threads a thin tube through a blood vessel to the heart to find a blocked artery and open it, usually with a stent. For a major heart attack, this has been the standard of care for more than 20 years, and it works best within about 90 minutes.
Vancouver Island's only cath lab services are in Victoria, beyond the 90 minute window for most people north of the Malahat. So NRGH doctors often have to rely on clot-busting drugs, an older treatment that is less effective and carries a higher risk of serious bleeding. A cath lab in Nanaimo would serve people from Duncan to Campbell River and Port Alberni, and local cardiologists say it is also the key to recruiting the heart specialists our region needs.
Moving Forward
If re-elected to City Council, I'll keep pushing to get these upgrades built as soon as possible, starting with the cardiac cath lab. And I'll keep pressing the Province for a fair funding formula that lowers the burden on Nanaimo taxpayers. The health of our community depends on it.
We urgently need a cardiac cath lab and new patient tower at NRGH. This is the video I produced to eplain the current situation..
On October 17th, vote for Paul Manly.
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