{"id":109763,"date":"2026-10-19T16:35:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T20:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=109763"},"modified":"2026-10-19T16:35:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T20:35:49","slug":"people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/19\/people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"People Are Dying of Heart Attacks at Nanaimo\u2019s Outdated Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee Doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital say the province has delayed critical hospital upgrades for 18 years, which is causing patients to unnecessarily suffer and die. Nanaimo Regional General was designated a tertiary care hospital in 2008, which means it should be able to offer just about any care a patient on the central or northern Vancouver Island may need, outside of specialist cardiac, neuro and transplant surgery, which are centralized in Vancouver or Victoria. The services that Nanaimo should be able to offer, but cannot, include a cardiac catheterization laboratory, general internal medicine, neurology and stroke care, oncology, general pediatrics, gastroenterology, palliative care and hospice, pediatric psychiatry and hematology, to name a few. But the province never followed through on&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F10%2F19%2Fpeople-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee Doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital say the province has delayed critical hospital upgrades for 18 years, which is causing patients to unnecessarily suffer and die. Nanaimo Regional General was designated a tertiary care hospital in 2008, which means it should be able to offer just about any care a patient on the central or northern Vancouver Island may need, outside of specialist cardiac, neuro and transplant surgery, which are centralized in Vancouver or Victoria. The services that Nanaimo should be able to offer, but cannot, include a cardiac catheterization laboratory, general internal medicine, neurology and stroke care, oncology, general pediatrics, gastroenterology, palliative care and hospice, pediatric psychiatry and hematology, to name a few. But the province never followed through on... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F10%2F19%2Fpeople-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>People Are Dying of Heart Attacks at Nanaimo\u2019s Outdated Hospital - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/19\/people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"People Are Dying of Heart Attacks at Nanaimo\u2019s Outdated Hospital - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee Doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital say the province has delayed critical hospital upgrades for 18 years, which is causing patients to unnecessarily suffer and die. Nanaimo Regional General was designated a tertiary care hospital in 2008, which means it should be able to offer just about any care a patient on the central or northern Vancouver Island may need, outside of specialist cardiac, neuro and transplant surgery, which are centralized in Vancouver or Victoria. The services that Nanaimo should be able to offer, but cannot, include a cardiac catheterization laboratory, general internal medicine, neurology and stroke care, oncology, general pediatrics, gastroenterology, palliative care and hospice, pediatric psychiatry and hematology, to name a few. But the province never followed through on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/19\/people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-19T20:35:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/19\\\/people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/19\\\/people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"People Are Dying of Heart Attacks at Nanaimo\u2019s Outdated Hospital\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-19T20:35:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/19\\\/people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2008,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/19\\\/people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/19\\\/people-are-dying-of-heart-attacks-at-nanaimos-outdated-hospital\\\/\",\"name\":\"People Are Dying of Heart Attacks at Nanaimo\u2019s Outdated Hospital - 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