Royal Inland Hospital.
(ASHLEY LEGASSIC - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)
March 29, 2021 - 1:45 PM
A new parkade is in the works for Royal Inland Hospital, but when construction will start and how many stalls it would have is yet to be determined.
On Friday, March 26, the Thompson Regional Hospital Board approved $5 million for this year's budget to put towards a new parkade at RIH.
The hospital board covers 40% of costs for major Interior Health projects. The parkade is estimated to cost between $15 and $20 million.
It remains unclear how many stalls the future parkade would host, as well as how many of those would be for staff use.
READ MORE: New nurses face up to nine-year wait to get parking spots at Interior hospitals
While the new Patient Care Tower has 174 parking stalls included in the project, that floor-level lot was "put on pause" as Interior Health explores other parking options, Interior Health business operations director, Corey Wein, said.
Interior Health had also considered leasing a parkade, but Wein said: "Unfortunately, it was not a viable option."
Parking at hospitals in both Kamloops and Kelowna has been a source of rising tensions recently. In Kamloops, employees at the nearby Ponderosa Lodge have been frustrated by a continual threat from a vandal puncturing tires.
Meanwhile in Kelowna, KGH employees have to wait up to nine years to get their own parking spot.
READ MORE: Interior Health, City of Kelowna appear headed for a parking showdown
There are very little details, however, on an upcoming parking lot at RIH.
"We know there are parking issues at RIH and together with our stakeholders, we continue to explore options to add more stalls. At this point we remain in the planning stages and we look forward to sharing more information when we can," Interior Health said in a statement to iNFOnews.ca.
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