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Funding precedent set with CT scanner

Hospital district raises contribution, with caveats

The regional hospital district board has set a precedent for funding health projects in the corridor after agreeing to pay more than 50 per cent of the cost of Whistler’s new CT scanner project.

The decision raises the hospital district’s contribution to $1.21 million, up another $700,000 as of last week’s board meeting. That’s more than the traditional 40 per cent contribution the hospital district kicks in for other projects.

“Raising our contribution that significantly does set a precedent which we’re not really comfortable with, but on the other hand the longer we delay the project, the higher the costs are going to be to complete the project,” said Susie Gimse, board chair of the Sea to Sky Regional Hospital District (SSRHD). “It’s not a decision we made lightly.”

The funding also comes with two significant conditions.

The first condition is that the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA), which has not put any money towards the capital costs of the $2.37 million CT scanner, takes on the responsibility for any future cost overruns on the project.

The board has also stipulated that money be set aside from the revenues generated by the scanner and go into a reserve fund for future costs.

“What we recognize is that a CT scan in Whistler will be a huge revenue generator for the health authority because of all the out of province patient contributions,” said Gimse. “The board felt that since, in fact, we are raising our contribution that we want the health authority to start establishing a fund that would see a percentage of those revenues that are generated from the CT scan go into a capital reserve. It just recognizes that there’s likely going to be future costs associated with this CT scan.”

According to Viviana Zanocco, spokesperson with the VCHA, the health authority is not aware of any conditions imposed by the hospital district.

“As far as I’m aware, those two conditions are not part of it,” she said.

“We’re happy with the vote… Until the hospital district lets us know ‘this is what the conditions are’, then we can respond.”

The board’s decision, made on Monday, Feb. 25, was welcome relief to Marnie Simon, chair of the board for the Whistler Health Care Foundation.

Fundraising efforts from health care foundations in the corridor brought in over $1 million and the SSRHD committed an initial $500,000 but it was still far short of the project costs.

“We’ve been lobbying the regional hospital district for quite a long time,” Simon said this week.

“Everybody in the community is to be commended because this has been a real community effort.”

The cash influx, she said, should make it possible to have the scanner operational by the end of the year.

“Really, we should have it up and running before Christmas,” she said.

“It’s not such a huge project but it’s an expensive one and specialized.”

The key players realized just how specialized and how expensive the project was last summer when the capital costs jumped roughly $800,000 in the final design stages. The budget change was due in part to a change in location of the cooling plant and a more complicated foundation needed for the 900 square foot addition to the Whistler Health Care Centre.

“The CT scan project has been somewhat frustrating in that it’s taken longer than any of us expected and the costs associated with the project, in particular the construction of the expanded space to house the CT scan, certainly cost more than we anticipated,” said Gimse.

“Let’s face it, this is of significant importance to the region. A CT scan based in Whistler will certainly reduce waiting time for our residents and travel time. When you’re dealing with health issues who needs that added stress to their daily lives? So absolutely it’s a huge benefit to the corridor.”

The CT scanner is just one of several projects the SSRHD is cost sharing with the health authority.

Its contributions to other capital projects in the corridor, however, vary.

The SSRHD is contributing more than $1.1 million to renovations at Squamish General Hospital — 47 per cent of the total $2.46 million project.

A further $5.9 million is going to the expansion of the long-term care facilities at Hilltop House in Squamish — 31 per cent of the total $18.9 million project.

With renovations to the pharmacy at Squamish General and the lab in Pemberton, the SSRHD is borrowing more than $7.6 million in total to pay for the projects.

“We’ll borrow funding over a period of time and that keeps the tax rate down,” said Gimse.

Taxpayers can expect to see a line item for both the SSRHD and the now defunct Squamish-Lillooet Regional Hospital District, which still has a debt, on their upcoming tax notices.

The combined tax rate for both entities means that for every $100,000 in assessed value, taxpayers will pay $10. That means a home valued at $1 million will have a $100 line item for hospital capital on the tax bill.