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Five new operating rooms are coming to Kelowna and Kamloops hospitals.

The B.C. government has announced funding to build two operating rooms at Kelowna General Hospital, and three at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.

The province says the extra operating rooms will come with increased support for staff.

"We have made tremendous progress towards rescheduling and completing surgical procedures postponed in the Interior due to the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental emergencies and staff redeployments," Minister of Health Adrian Dix said in a media release issued today, July 18. "This investment in additional operating rooms in Kamloops and Kelowna will significantly increase surgical capacity throughout the region and help more patients receive their surgery faster and closer to home."

READ MORE: Thousands of upcoming shifts unclaimed at Kamloops hospital

The extra operating rooms are expected to open in 2023 and cost almost $7 million per hospital.

The number of operating rooms at Kelowna General Hospital will increase from 14 to 16 and will provide an extra 2,500 surgeries annually.

Kamloops will now have 13 operating rooms, which the extra three rooms allowing for 3,240 more procedures annually.

"Our hospitals continue to feel the pressures created over the last few years as we postponed surgical services to focus on critical care, which is creating a surge in demand for these services today," Interior Health's Susan Brown said in the release.

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According to the province, in May 2020 the government pumped $250 million into a plan to increase surgical capacity to make up for postponed non-urgent surgeries cancelled because of the pandemic.

Along with the operating rooms, the government has increased funding by $2.9 million to help support additional staff in the intensive care unit, emergency department and hospitalist program at the Royal inland Hospital in Kamloops. The media release says the government has released additional incentives to attract staff to the Kamloops hospital.

The Royal Inland Hospital has come under severe scrutiny recently after multiple media reports highlighted severe understaffing at the hospital.

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