Consultation process for new Kings County Memorial Hospital now months behind

When staff consultation began for a new Kings County Memorial Hospital, the conversations were expected to wrap up by July.

But that process is headed into winter.

Corrine Rowswell, the chief operating officer for Health P.E.I., said many groups still need to be consulted.

"Those things take time and we'd rather get it [as] close to right as we can," Rowswell said.

A new Kings County Memorial Hospital was announced in the province's 2021 capital budget, with $13.3 million set aside over five years for planning. Construction is expected to start in 2025.

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Rowswell said that Health P.E.I. is now in the final stages of early planning with physicians, staff and Health P.E.I.'s leadership. RPG, a national consultant group, is also involved in the planning.

"What they do is they look at all of our population needs, our projected population growth — we know in P.E.I. we've had significant population growth over the last few years," Rowswell said.

"That gets taken into consideration and based on our population health needs and those projections as well, in terms of determining what future service looks like."

Some of those things have already been determined.

The 30 beds at the hospital will stay. With a growing number of young immigrant families, there are plans to invest in obstetric care.

But Rowswell said the feedback from staff has been two-pronged.

"They have a lot of pride in the work that they do, and a lot of skill and training and they want to see that continue," she said. "They want to deliver as many services as they can close to home."

At the same time, staff understand they can only do so much with the resources available locally.