Urgent primary care centres in Kamloops, Okanagan come with local costs

West Kelowna Mayor Gord Milsom was thrilled when Health Minister Adrian Dix phoned into the Sept. 8 council meeting to announce the city would get an urgent and primary care facility.

That’s similar to ones opened over the past two years in Kelowna, Kamloops and Vernon.

While the Ministry of Health’s news release on the West Kelowna facility noted that renovations would cost $3.1 million, it didn’t say where that money would come from.

READ MORE: UPDATE: West Kelowna getting long-awaited primary health care centre

That became clearer today, Oct. 8, when the Central Okanagan Regional Hospital Board was asked to kick in its share of that cost: $1.2 million.

Annual property taxes include a portion that goes to regional hospital boards that pay 40 per cent of things like hospital construction and major equipment.

The Kamloops urgent and primary care centre cost $3.4 million and the Thompson Regional Hospital district paid $1.36 million of that.

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