Nearly 2,000 people have signed a public petition calling on Premier John Horgan to take action and commit to a new acute care tower at Richmond Hospital in the 2018 provincial budget.
Richmond councillors Derek Dang, Bill McNulty and Linda McPhail today revealed the results of the two-month long petition on Tuesday morning outside the hospital.
“We started our petition a little over two months ago hoping to get 1,000 signatories asking the Premier and his government to commit to a new acute care tower at Richmond Hospital in the 2018 provincial budget – we’re already at nearly 2,000 and it’s still going strong,” said McNulty.
“Our community is united calling for a replacement of our 50-year old acute care tower and today we’re calling on the Premier to act.”
Richmond First Voters Society launched last Nov. 30 a public petition calling on Horgan and the B.C. government make a commitment to build a new acute care tower at the hospital as part of their 2018 provincial budget.
Since launching, 1,842 people have signed the petition and sent an email supporting the cause to Horgan’s email account.
“Nearly $27 million has already been raised by Richmond Hospital Foundation to support the new tower, we have nearly 2,000 people signing a petition, and doctors and medical professionals are sounding the alarm about the need for change,” added McPhail.
“The only one not stepping up now is the provincial government and we’re hoping they’ll finally step up in next week's budget.”
“We’re not asking for special treatment, we’re asking for equal treatment – and right now we’re far from it,” said Dang.
Despite being made fully aware of the hospital’s dire need for a new tower, the former B.C. Liberal government failed to get it past the concept plan stage.
The next stage — a business plan— could take up to 18 months.
The Richmond Chamber of Commerce is also behind the push to pressure the new NDP government to include a new hospital tower in next week’s budget.
Richmond Hospital first opened Feb. 26, 1966 with 132 beds, supporting a city’s population of under 50,000 residents.
Today, with 233 beds, Richmond Hospital serves a city population of nearly 220,000 residents, not including the hospital’s role to service YVR airport.
