Province announces major changes to hospital redevelopment plan

The province wants to expand and fast-track the plan for building healthcare infrastructure in the Halifax Regional Municipality.

It announced what it is calling the “More, Faster: The Action for Health Build” plan Thursday morning.

“In concrete terms, this means over 400 new beds and four more operating rooms quicker,” explained Premier Tim Houston. “A new patient tower, a larger more functional emergency department, a new cancer care centre all on the Halifax Infirmary site quicker.”

“A major expansion at the Dartmouth General including a new emergency department quicker, new in-patient services at the Sackville Cobequid outpatient centre quicker. Two new stand-alone transition to community centres in HRM quicker. A new mental health and addictions campus and a new heart health centre, all quicker.”

Houston said the original hospital redevelopment plan was well intentioned, but it no longer fits the needs of Nova Scotians, especially now that the population in the Central Zone is expected to grow 29 per cent by 2043.

“It would have been a 2 million square foot complex that included no increase in beds, no increase in ORs, no plan to expand or modernize the emergency department and no capacity to respond to a population that is both aging and growing.”

“The previous approach was also far too slow. It was announced seven years ago and was still over ten years away.”

The revamped hospital site is to eventually allow the transfer of services from the aging Victoria General Hospital located nearby.

Houston did not provide a price tag for the project, but said it will be in the billions.

“It's a generational investment, but this is about getting the facilities we need in this province to meet the needs of Nova Scotians,” he stated. “Whatever it costs, it'll cost.”

He said the government is in the final stages of concluding an agreement with the Plenary PCL Health consortium, the lone bidder for previously planned work on the Halifax Infirmary site, which is the largest component of the overall project.

“We are ready to put shovels in the ground, and we are going to do that in early 2023,” Houston said. Work on major elements of the redevelopment, such as the Infirmary, is expected to take five years, he said, although he didn’t provide specific timelines.

John Volcko, vice-president of national corporate development for Plenary PCL Health, said the province’s plan to break the redevelopment into manageable “chunks” makes it more feasible to proceed with its public-private partnership deal, despite concerns with rising interest rates, material costs and labour shortages.

“Breaking it up should make it easier to deliver, by spreading the risk over different buildings and not having to commit to the whole value of the facility all at once,” Volcko said.

He said the consortium would like to begin preliminary work by May, and he didn’t rule out bidding for work on the other proposed projects.

With files from Canadian Press