On May 29, The Discourse and other media outlets were invited to tour the Quw’utsun Hulitun-ew’t-hw (Quw’utsun Valley Hospital) with Island Health officials and Bowinn Ma, minister of infrastructure, as well as Cowichan Valley MLA Debra Toporowski.
The new 204-bed hospital is set to open mid-2027 in North Cowichan and is three times larger than the current Cowichan District Hospital.
Major wings of the hospital including the emergency department, psychiatric emergency services, operating room, and mental health and substance-use unit are nearing completion.
“With more space, expanded services and culturally safe care, it [the hospital] will give people better access to the health support they need close to home,” Topowrowski said.
The tour included a look at a dedicated psychiatric emergency space, which will be the third of its kind constructed on Vancouver Island and will be capable of taking non-involuntary care patients.
“In our current Cowichan District Hospital, we have five beds like this,” said Pat Gallagher, the project’s chief medical officer, noting that the new hospital has allowed for growth in all departments.
The new emergency department space will increase the number of beds from 14 to 45 and there will be nine surgical procedure rooms, six more than the current hospital.
The hospital design was informed by Indigenous perspectives and knowledge with efforts made to build culturally safe spaces to support healing practices, an Indigenous food program and a dedicated Indigenous health program space.
One part of this effort, according to chief project officer Westley Davidson, is a special ventilation system that would allow for smudging ceremonies in 189 rooms in the hospital.
There are still no plans to repurpose the existing Cowichan District Hospital but much of the existing equipment will be transferred to the new hospital.
“It’s a challenging building to refit given its age,” he said.
Last year, North Cowichan wrote a letter to B.C.’s minister of health requesting that the old hospital site be repurposed as a centre for addictions and psychiatry.
The new hospital project has had a rocky history with budget increases and timeline adjustments since it started construction in 2022.
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