Local healthcare at SOGH gets a major boost

By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle

Healthcare for local communities was given an unprecedented boost this morning with the announcement of a $2 million fundraising campaign targeting three initiatives for the South Okanagan General Hospital (SOGH), including new equipment and the realization of the innovative initiative to build housing for doctors in Oliver.

Announcing the beginning of the South Okanagan Similkameen (SOS) Medical Foundation’s fundraising campaign from today Ian Lindsey, the Foundation’s CEO said when he began in this role two years ago he toured local communities and one message was constant: “We need the emergency room to stop being closed and we need to invest in this hospital.”

“I’m happy to say, working with politicians, with interior health that we’ve listened to the message, and today we stopped listening and we act. But we need the community to help us with this,” he said highlighting the three main components of the investment.

On the equipment front $825,000 is being earmarked for a new digital X-ray machine, which will replace what is the oldest X-ray machine in the entire Interior Health region, according to Oliver Mayor Martin Johansen, who has been keenly involved on the healthcare front and is currently the Chair of the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional Hospital District.

The new modern digital imaging machine will provide “faster, safer and more accurate results,” Lindsey noted.

The second bit of equipment will surely bring joy to a wide swath of the population as SOGH will be getting a new ultrasound machine to offer for the first time in the hospital’s history, ultrasound imaging services, which earmarks $875,000 of the fundraising campaign.

Patients will be able to get their ultrasound examinations locally instead of having to travel to Penticton Regional Hospital (PRH), which, aside from alleviating the travel pain, will likely result in shorter wait times for an appointment.

It will also benefit the PRH as it will reduce the demand on services there, agreed Madeleine Csillag-Wong, Executive Director, Clinical Operations for Interior Health.

Lindsey noted that with the new equipment, more than 3,600 trips for ultrasound exams at PRH each year can be avoided by local residents. This allows for “timely and critical care closer to home,” Johansen observed.

As to when this technology will be operational at SOGH Lindsey, replying to a Times Chronicle question, said it depends on the fundraising.

“The goal for us is that we get to a comfortable level of the campaign. I don’t have a date to answer that question, but as long as we see that this campaign is going well, we will purchase the equipment; we will not wait knowing that we can get to the end,” he said. He cautioned that it’s not something that will be purchased “tomorrow.”

Greg Wheeler, Board Vice Chair of the SOS Medical Foundation and owner of Oliver Pharmacy encouraged the community, both individuals and businesses, to participate in the fundraiser saying “every donation is important – big or small – that’s how we get these big projects to completion.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to need the support of every single community member to make this a successful campaign,” he added.

The third initiative to provide short-term accommodation for visiting doctors and nurses and their families is a significant piece of the puzzle and has perhaps the greatest potential for turning the doctor shortage around in the shortest possible time.

This component will see $300,000 of the fundraising total, for a total cost of just over $515,000, dedicated to building two two-bedroom modular homes in the vacant land next to Sunnybank Retirement Centre in Oliver.

This has been a key project of Johansen, who has worked on the initiative relentlessly for the better part of three years with the support of Oliver Council.

And in a jaw-droppingly rapid timeframe, Johansen said the plan is for the accommodation to be move-in ready by March 2026. This was made possible by his work to get an interest-free loan to cover the gap in time that fundraising presents.

“We were, at one time, talking about four units, maybe three, one bedrooms and a two bedroom,” Johansen says. But as the process unfolded and the funding became available, including what the SOS Medical Foundation was willing to support, the project was scaled down to the two two-bedrooms, he says.

The units will be set up to support families coming, but also for doctors or travelling nurses who can have their own bedrooms but share a common space. The units will be pre-fabricated, which gives flexibility should they need to be moved and can easily be added onto if more units are needed.

In total Johansen said 11 proposals were submitted to the RFP process. “We had a good response. It’s a viable option and it conserves our capital investment in the sense that we could move them if need be, or we can add on if needed,” he said in reference to the modular approach.

“We’ve gone through the RFP process, and right now, we’re just nailing down all the budget numbers for everything that would be included, to open the doors, making sure that we’ve got enough funding to cover what we need to do there.”

He says the final costing and options will go to council, probably in early October for consideration and then the contract will be awarded, with the likely winner being a BC-based company.

The units will be put on the east end of the property with some trees and landscaping done, along with decking and patio furniture.

The units will be equipped with everything a normal home would be equipped with and cleaning will done by the “tenants” themselves. As somebody transitions in and out, then a janitorial service will come in to prepare it for the next occupant.

“But I think the expectation is going to be that you live, and look after the place while you’re there, especially if you’re staying for one or two months or weeks or something like that.

He says the Town of Oliver will provide the administrative support, as far as booking, managing and operating them, maintenance and such. The costs will be recouped through the rent that is collected.

“We’re not looking to make a ton of money on this,” Johansen says, “just enough to cover the utilities, the janitorial and those types of costs and make it an affordable option.”

He notes that not everybody comes with an allowance for rent, unlike for instance the travelling nurses, “but even they don’t get enough to cover the expenses of a hotel or a VBRO or those types of things. So we’re looking to provide an affordable option for everybody.”

While Osoyoos is not involved directly, Johansen noted that they had assisted by writing letters of support to government, health authority for the lease, etc.

“We want to make it a livable space. It’s a transitional space and a temporary space, not a place where somebody is going to live for a long time, but if a resident comes here, they’re able to transition into more permanent housing or travel, nurse on contract or a physician wanting to come with his family.

“We’re really wanting to make the option available as a high priority, to be able to support our ER staying open. So that’s going to be the main focus there.”

He says if units are available, they could be used by other healthcare workers, international medical students, etc, which would support local healthcare.

Johansen said the process started in March 2023 when he began discussions with the SOS Medical Foundation and then with Adrian Dix, who at that time was the Minister of Health.

“He was very excited about the project,” Johansen says, adding that it’s not a wholly unique initiative, “we’re not breaking new ground here, as this is something that other communities are doing as well to support health care workers in their communities,” he states modestly.

“Our next step was to get a lease approved from Interior Health, which we were able to do in September 2024, for the land by Sunnybank. And the fundraising came into place all this year, with the Ministry of Health contributing $215,000 to the project in April of 2025.

“I was able to get a commitment from her [Josie Osborne, Minister of Health] when I was down in Victoria in April. And the Medical Foundation, I presented to their board, and they had some discussions after, and they approved funding $300,000 for the housing component, which gives us $515,000 total.

“Needing to get the job done sooner than later – we know we need it now, we can’t wait,” Johansen went to the Okanagan Similkameen Regional Hospital District in August, and was able to secure an interest-free loan to provide funding now to get this done.

Had he not taken this step, the funding formula used in the SOS fundraising campaigns generates funds at a steady but much slower pace, and would have put the project back by a year, only coming to fruition in 2027.

When asked how he feels about seeing it all come together Johansen said: “I’m very, very happy about the housing coming together. For sure, that’s something like I said, by the time they’re in place, it’ll have been three years of advocating and asking for, lobbying and all those types of things and and so it’s really, you know, satisfying to have a project come together.”

He added that the other two initiatives to modernize the equipment at SOGH “are just huge, too,” he said. “It’s just going to help support doctors who are working in the ER, they need access to more diagnostic equipment. It’s going to reduce travel times and wait times. I think it’s going to help make a difference.”

“Those are all great investments in our hospital, for sure I’m happy to see that moving forward. But the housing one is three years of work done. So I’m pretty excited. I do believe it’ll make a difference.

“Are we going to continue to have hospital closures? Most likely, it’s not going to stop that. But it’s another piece of the puzzle that makes coming to Oliver a little more attractive.”

Johansen kicked off the fundraising campaign with a personal donation of $1,000, encouraging the community to help quickly reach the funding goal.