Nova Scotia to spend $7.5 million to expand dialysis unit at Dartmouth General

The Nova Scotia government has approved $7.46 million to expand dialysis care at the Dartmouth General Hospital.

There are currently 10 dialysis chairs at the hospital, and the expansion project will bring that number to 16.

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Health Minister Randy Delorey says as a result, an additional 36 patients will be able to be treated in Dartmouth each week, bringing the total to close to 100 patients.

The province is building or expanding dialysis units in six communities, including Dartmouth, Halifax, Kentville, Digby, Bridgewater and Glace Bay.

READ MORE: ‘It’s just added stress’: Dartmouth dialysis patients frustrated by imminent transfer to Halifax

The dialysis unit at the Dartmouth General will be closed until construction is finished in about a year.

Patients who had been receiving dialysis in Dartmouth are now receiving care at the Halifax Infirmary and Victoria General sites of the QEII Health Sciences Centre.