The role of Squamish Hospital in the 2010 Olympic Games has been more or less established, although some more information on things like elective surgeries and demand on private practices within town are still being established.
Corinne Hamill, acute care services manager and site lead for Vancouver Coastal health updated Squamish council on renovations at the hospital and the Olympic plan on Tuesday night.
"Squamish General Hospital and health clinics at the upper end of the corridor are providing health care to the public and spectators coming to the Olympics," she said. "Athletes and Olympic Family will be going to a poly-clinic in Function Junction for service in the Whistler area, and for advanced needs athletes are going to Vancouver General Hospital and Olympic Family are going to St. Paul's.
"What we're anticipating, looking at other communities that have hosted the Olympics, is that the general public uses the public system less during Games time, while we can expect to see an increase in out-of-country use, so on balance there isn't a tremendous impact on health care services.
"It's similar to Pemberton Music Festival last year when we were anticipating greater use of our health care system but when we looked back it was about the same with fewer residents using the hospital and visitors from outside the area making up the difference."
But while numbers could be roughly the same during Games time, Vancouver Coastal Health also ran a mass casualty exercise to test the command and communication system in case of an accident involving multiple people, a natural disaster, terror attack or other emergency.
"It's about getting staff to know the language, and to get our disaster cabinets ready and stocked, and our plans polished up," said Hamill.
In terms of physician coverage Vancouver Coastal Health is anticipating that there will be less demand for elective surgeries at that time, which means more surgeons will be available to the emergency department. Their estimates are general but Hamill expects to have a better idea in the coming months.
As for the ongoing renovation and expansion of the Squamish Hospital, Hamill says the work is underway to increase the number of treatment spaces from seven to 12, while expanding the waiting room and improving visibility from the nurses' station. They are also creating a triage centre, as well as a new resuscitation room that includes an articulating boom for all of the equipment.
The second phase of the project wrapped up this week, and the final phase could wrap up sometime this year. A separate project to waterproof the roof after leakage last winter has also wrapped up.
Councillor Bryan Raiser asked whether staff levels would be increased to utilize the extra space. Hamill answered that a 10-hour shift for a triage nurse is being added at this point.
"The emergency department is being built for 10 years out, so it's actually bigger than what we need right now. As the demand increases it will be time to look at the staffing model."
Hilltop House new beds almost ready
Hilltop House, Squamish's senior care facility, will add 13 new beds this winter to bring the total number of beds to 73, with another 37 beds on the way next year.
"It's very exciting for us because generally speaking clients who need residential care often go off-site to North Vancouver... and we're looking forward to bringing those folks home," said Marion Biln, manager of home and community care for Squamish General Hospital, and manager of Hilltop House.
Biln says roughly 85 per cent of residents at the centre are local, while others have moved from outside the community to be close to family.
There are four people currently on the waitlist, she said, but many more that have gone to other communities and are looking for an opportunity to move back.
The Squamish Renaissance Retirement Residence, which provides assisted living to seniors, is also proceeding and should be finished in October. There are roughly 20 sponsored beds in the facility for seniors requiring care, and so far 24 people have expressed interest in those spaces.
Tourism Squamish to be re-launched
It's taken a long time, but at last Tourism Squamish presented its terms of reference to council on Tuesday night - the last stage before the group is incorporated and director positions are filled.
Tim Schoahs and Torand Svjard presented the terms to council, which accepted them with a few suggestions regarding the minimum number of directors and how many are required to form a quorum.
The goal is to include a broad range of different organizations or representatives from different industries impacted by tourism, with up to 13 members in total. That includes the Downtown Squamish Business Improvement Association, the Squamish Chamber of Commerce, up to three directors representing the hotel industry (charged with collecting two per cent hotel tax to fund Tourism Squamish), as well as representatives from arts culture, activity operators, transportation, retail, food and beverage, education and at least one director-at-large to be determined by the board.
"It's exciting taking one step forward in our tourism future," commented Mayor Greg Gardner, while also recognizing the role of the District of Squamish in collecting and spending the hotel tax.
Tourism Squamish is expected to host its first meeting in the fall.
Motion to delay Garibaldi @ Squamish fails
At the Sept. 8 special council meeting, Councillor Corinne Lonsdale put forward a motion to delay the provincial Environmental Assessment process over concerns about the growth of the project since it was proposed 10 years ago, and gaps in the data on water and sewage. Without that information, Lonsdale argued it was impossible for members of the community to form an opinion before the public comment period closed on July 19.
Lonsdale suggested they write to the province and ask for a delay of three months to get information on the number of bed units, the size of residential lots, water needs and more.
The motion was voted down by Mayor Greg Gardner, Paul Lalli, Doug Race and Rob Kirkham, who were also careful to say they were not in support of the project at this point but would allow the province to complete the assessment. It is likely that the project would come back to the District of Squamish after the environmental assessment is complete. The resort proponents would like to have their project included within district lands through a boundary expansion.
At buildout the project could include over 22,000 bed units, two golf courses, and a full-service ski area on 1,800 hectares.
