New family room at Kamloops hospital aims to relieve some pressure for parents of sick kids
When families have to travel to Kamloops or other large centres in B.C. for a child's medical treatment, there are often added, sometimes unexpected costs; transportation, food and accommodation, to name a few.
A new family room at Royal Inland Hospital — a partnership between Interior Health, the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation and Ronald McDonald House — aims to alleviate some of the pressure put on families while their children are in the hospital.
"It's going to give parents an opportunity to be able to focus their energy on things that are more important than worrying about accommodations or financial costs," Sarah Irvine, co-chair of the Ronald McDonald House committee told CBC's Jenifer Norwell.
"I mean, finances scare everyone and they're not something you want to be stressing about when you're already stressing about the care of your child."
Royal Inland Hospital serves 225,000 people in Kamloops and the surrounding communities.
Richard Pass, CEO of Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon, said that over 30 per cent of the families the organization works with in Vancouver are from the Kamloops region, which made the Interior city a natural choice for a room such as this.
"It's really going to have an impact," Pass said.
The room will be between 1,100 and 1,200 square feet, located in the new patient care tower currently under construction, with space for families to unwind, and even sleep, without having to roam too far from their children, and at no cost.
"A family room is basically a home within the hospital that provides an opportunity for families to stay together, get out of the clinical environment of the hospital, make some food, get some rest, do some laundry and just really have a little bit of respite and stay together as a family and regroup," Pass said.
The design for the Kamloops family room has not been finalized, but it is expected to open in 2024. It will be the second of its kind in B.C. — a similar room was opened at Surrey Memorial Hospital in 2014.
