Frustrated Penticton residents pack meeting to demand hospital upgrades

PENTICTON, B.C. – More than 700 frustrated South Okanagan residents crowded into a meeting in Penticton, B.C., on Wednesday night to demand upgrades to aging and outdated Penticton Regional Hospital.

Janice Perrino, Executive Director of the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation, says support for the work demonstrates the outrage in the community.

She says Penticton deserves the same hospital upgrades as those recently completed in Vernon and Kelowna, and she vows protests will continue until funding is committed.

Penticton Regional Hospital serves a population that has grown more than ten times since the facility opened 62 years ago.

The 120 members of the Penticton Medical Society say a new patient tower must be constructed to ease overcrowding and get patients in and out of hospital more quickly.

Society members have already said the need for improvements is desperate. (CKFR, CKOR)