The need for the development of tertiary services in Nanaimo has been acknowledged for many years. The lack of such services has been detrimental to our patients and our community. 

We, the undersigned members of the medical staff in Nanaimo, demand commitment to the development of needed local tertiary services and the infrastructure to support them as soon as possible to serve the needs of Central/North Vancouver Island, as promised by all parties in the recent provincial election campaign and as recognized and promised by Island Health for two decades. 

Moreover, given that

1. There is an increasing and greater burden of cardiac disease in Central/North Vancouver Island that exceeds that in South Vancouver Island;

2. Local and immediate access to percutaneous coronary intervention for patients with acute myocardial ischemia is needed and supported by evidence to reduce related morbidity and mortality and is the accepted standard of care;

3. The infrastructure for the provision of cardiac catheterization services must be located adjacent to the Emergency Department, and

4. A new patient tower required to accommodate present and future needs cannot be located with the same adjacency on the NGRH campus,

 As a first phase of overall commitment to the development of tertiary services and a new patient tower in Nanaimo, we further demand immediate commitment to the establishment of a cardiac catheterization service and appropriate separate infrastructure within 3 years.

Signed,

The Nanaimo MSA Executive