Key takeaways:
- Internal documents reveal population forecasts for service needs are outdated.
- One of the proposals in an internal report on the Halifax Infirmary redevelopment project is adding a new emergency unit to the programs.
The tender for the redevelopment of the Halifax Infirmary was planned to be awarded in late spring of this year, but a government representative ensures it is being postponed.
“Due to present market situations, we have been asked to extend the financial closing of the [Halifax Infirmary expansion project] by some months and are working toward that extension,” a report to CBC News attributed to officials with the units of Health and Public Works reads.
The Halifax Infirmary is the most significant area of what’s known as the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre New Generation project. Projected in 2018 to cost $2 billion, the work also had expansions and renovations at the Dartmouth General Hospital and Hants Community Hospital and the building of a new outpatient center in Bayers Lake.
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While working on the $259.4-million outpatient hospital stays on time and budget, the government’s report says “a financial update to the [Halifax Infirmary] task will be provided in the future.”
Population increase outstripping forecasts
It’s challenging to know what includes market states, as per the government’s statement. Still, internal documents from CBC show Nova Scotia’s booming population — especially in the Halifax region — has created problems that the plans for the infirmary need to be revisited.
The papers are from an internal presentation in February for officials linked to the redevelopment. They show the region’s expected population growth was already outpacing projections from 2015 when planning for significant hospital redevelopment projects across the province began to take shape.
Source – cbc.ca
