The Fraser Canyon Hospital appears to have been somewhat sheltered from the storm of cuts made last week by the Fraser Health Authority to meet their estimated $130- to $160 million budget shortfall.

“We are pleased the acute care unit will continue to have 10 beds and continue to support the emergency,” said Rowena Rizzotti, executive director of acute care for Chilliwack, Hope and Agassiz.

“We are hoping this (announcement) will reassure the community. The emergency ward at the Fraser Canyon Hospital is not closing.”

After preliminary Fraser Health Authority budget discussions were released by the NDP health critic in June the public rallied in Hope, and transformed a regular meeting of Fraser Health CAO Nigel Murray and hospital staffers into true town hall meeting.

Although the core services at the hospital have proven to be protected, the hospital will face a downgrade in the level of care.

“Minor modifications” are being made to bed designations, tailored to the community’s needs.

According to Rizzotti the current usage of beds at the Fraser Canyon Hospital reveal a greater “demand (locally) for non-acute and sub-acute care.”

The modifications “will allow Fraser Canyon to operate with 10 acute care beds and will allow us to provide services that meet the community’s (identified) needs,” adds Rizzotti.

“The goal is to maintain patient access for residents of Hope to get the care they need as close to home as possible.”

Currently the 10 beds in the acute care ward service four acute care patients, four sub-acute care patients and two palliative care patients. The redesign will see two of the four acute care beds downgraded to acute care-short stay beds. The two remaining acute care beds will be downgraded as sub-acute care beds.

Patents needing longer term acute care will likely go to Chilliwack where diagnostic intervention and specialists are available, added Rizzotti.

The Fraser Health Authority will also not move ahead with plans to add four more convalescent beds to the Fraser Hope Lodge and will not be moving forward with a planned second respite bed.

Residential care beds at the lodge will also be reduced by two as “we currently only have one person on the wait list,” added Rizzotti.

With the redesign, Rizzotti expects to see some staff cuts in the future, but we are “hoping for minimal” impact on staff.

The planned re-designation of beds is “at this point a proposed strategy,” noted Rizzotti.