Look to UBCO for KGH expansion

DEAR EDITOR:

In 1907, a small hospital was built on the a street to Pandosy, this being almost at the edge of city limits, on Rose Avenue.

This was good enough for the small town of Kelowna. In 1937, a new hospital was built on Pandosy Street (this was later called “A” block.)

The hospital was growing to serve the needs of a growing town. By the mid-1960s, it grew some more with “B” block added to serve a larger town. Parking spaces did not grow since there was no space. KGH continued to expand. Then UBCO was built to serve the area, but KGH continued to expand in the Pandosy/Rose avenue area.

KGH, along with UBCO, wanted to be a teaching hospital for doctors, nurses and technicians, etc. In the 1990s, KGH just continued to expand absorbing many homes in the area at great costs as well as the garden centre two blocks away.

It was suggested that some new expansion of KGH should occur at UBCO since there was a larger, firmer footprint available there as well as excellent highway and airport access. I questioned this with a doctor friend and he said that since many doctors live in the Mission area, that they were in favour of status quo as they already had a long enough commute to KGH.

Building in the Pandosy area requires piles to be driven into the goose mud; “B” block sits on 489 cement piles some 90-feet deep and these took most of a year to install.

At UBCO, there is firm gravel ground and more of it, as well, no homes needed to be purchased for expansion. I question how many million-dollar homes still need to be purchased to satisfy KGH growth?

KGH is a good hospital and we should all be happy to have it, but how fat does it have to become? We should look to UBCO for future expansion.

Jorgen Hansen, Kelowna