The Kelowna and Vernon Hospitals project reached another key milestone today with the release of the Request for Proposals (RFP) to design, build, finance and maintain the expansion of the Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) and the Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH).

Three qualified proponent teams have been short-listed to participate in the Request for Proposal (RFP) phase of the competition to design, build, finance and maintain the expansion of Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) and Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH).

A preferred proponent has been named to work with Interior Health and the Provincial government in negotiations as part of the next steps needed toward expanding Kelowna General Hospital and Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH) provides hospital services to residents of the North Okanagan. VJH is comprised of buildings dating from 1947 to 1981. The emergency and intensive care areas are both operating with 50 per cent of the space necessary for their volume, and only one of the four operating rooms is appropriately sized for major surgeries.

Government has approved major expansion plans for Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) and Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH), announced Health Minister George Abbott. Expansion plans include a new approximately 187,000-square-foot outpatient hospital in addition to modernizing and quadrupling the size of the emergency department from 7,000 to 30,000 square feet at KGH and a new approximately 135,000-square-foot diagnostic and treatment building at VJH.