Mission hospital ER to undergo $18M renovation

Mission Memorial Hospital will undergo an $18-million renovation to expand its emergency department.

The Fraser Health Authority says a flood in the ER in January last year forced repairs but also provided an opportunity to consider how the space could be improved.

“The expanded Emergency Department will be 35 per cent larger, increasing care spaces by 17 to a total of 41,” said an announcement Thursday.

The health authority says patient and worker safety is key to the new layout design, which includes “clear lines of sight, quick and clear exit paths in case of an emergency, and controlled access to” the department.

The project will also include building a resuscitation room and an airborne isolation room for patients at risk of spreading infections.

Dr. Paul Theron, site medical director at Mission Memorial Hospital, tells 1130 NewsRadio the project will not interrupt service in the emergency department that was already displaced by flooding.

In recent months, the department has been forced to close multiple times due to staffing issues.

Theron says staffing-shortage closures are related to a “human resources” issue.

“Even if that $18 million was not allocated toward a capital project, it would not necessarily lead to the ER remaining open,” Theron explained.

“Unfortunately, our physical location towards the east — the periphery — of the health authority is a challenge for us to recruit and retain staff. We see more physicians and nurses and our health practitioners choosing to stay closer to larger city centres.”

As part of work to improve health care staffing in B.C., Premier David Eby announced Monday that the province has seen a 127 per cent rise in applications from American nurses, amounting to 113 granted registrations.

Eby says the increase is due to B.C. having cut application wait times for nurses from four months to a matter of days last month.

The BC Nurses’ Union says the province is facing a 6,000-nurse deficit, citing retention through improved working conditions as a more important factor than recruitment alone.

Theron says that by modernizing the ER and providing additional treatment space, and thereby more room for physicians to work “in parallel,” the hospital will have better success in retaining staff to avoid closures.

“Our community deserves good or better than what we’re currently able to provide from an infrastructure perspective. And that’s why this project, I think, is very timely,” said Theron.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2026 and be completed in spring 2027.