Three companies short listed for PRH Care Tower selection process

PENTICTON – Three proponents have been short listed to participate in the next stage of the competitive selection process to design, build, partially finance, and maintain the new patient care tower at Penticton Regional Hospital (PRH)

The short list for the Request For Proposal stage of the Patient Care Tower at Penticton Regional Hospital was announced today.

Ellis Don Infrastructure, Plenary Health and Tandem Health Partners were selected from a total of six responses to the Patient Care Tower Request For Qualifications, which closed November 6.

"Each completed stage of the competitive selection process brings us closer to the start of construction," said Penticton MLA Dan Ashton. "The new patient care tower is eagerly anticipated by our community and I'm looking forward to seeing the first shovel in the ground."

The RFP is expected to be released to the short-listed proponents in February 2015.

The Patient Care Tower’s budgeted $325 million cost will be jointly funded by the provincial government, with $122 million provided by the Okanagan Similkameen Regional Hospital District and $20 million provided by the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation.

Janice Perrino, Executive Director of the South Similkameen Medical Foundation, said she appreciated the support received from residents across the South Okanagan, adding this announcement was a major milestone in the construction of the patient care tower. The foundation is about to embark on a major fundraising campaign for its $20 million share of the cost.

The project will be built in two phases.  Phase one is construction of the new patient care tower which will include an ambulatory care centre, surgical services centre, 84 medical/surgical inpatient beds in single patient rooms, a new medical device reprocessing unit, and space for the UBC Faculty of Medicine program. The tower will be approximately 26,700 square metres (287,500 square feet).Phase two involves renovation of part of the existing hospital in order to expand emergency department facilities, in addition to renovations of the pharmacy, stores and laundry areas. Phase two is not part of this RFP.

Construction is expected to start in 2016 with the new tower opening in 2019. The project is expected to create more than 1,910 direct and indirect jobs for workers over the life of the project.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.