COMOX VALLEY – To strengthen seniors’ care in the Comox Valley, Island Health is opening interim beds to ensure the frail and elderly receive timely, appropriate care in the community. These beds will remain in place until late 2020, when it is anticipated up to 151 permanent beds will open in the community.
Island Health is opening 17 beds on Floor 4B at the North Island Hospital’s Comox Valley campus. The beds are expected to open in early September. Over the short and medium term, these beds will be used to help alleviate patient capacity pressures due, in part, to patients waiting to transition home or to a community-based complex care facility.
In the months ahead, Island Health will begin to look at options for use of patient beds on Floor 4B in the long term, in line with the long-term region-wide vision for the beds.
Island Health is also partnering with St. Joseph’s to open 21 interim complex care beds and three interim respite care beds. These beds are expected to open in early September and will be located in the former St. Joseph’s hospital site.
Island Health provides health care and support services to more than 767,000 people on Vancouver Island, the islands in the Salish Sea and the Johnstone Strait, and mainland communities north of Powell River.
With more than 20,000 staff and over 2,000 medical staff, 6,000 volunteers, and the dedicated support of foundations and auxiliaries, Island Health delivers a broad range of health services, including: public health services, primary health care, home and community care, mental health and addictions services, acute care in hospitals, and much more across a huge, geographically diverse region.
Central/North Island media inquiries:
Cheryl Bloxham
250-370-8878
cheryl.bloxham@islandhealth.ca