Work begins on IWK Health Centre’s ER expansion, set to double in size

Nova Scotia said Monday that work has begun at the IWK Health Centre’s new emergency department, which is slated to be finished by March 2025.

The new facility at the Halifax pediatric hospital will be more than double its current size, according to the province. It will be built on University Avenue, next to the existing parking garage near the front of the Children’s Building.

“The new department will help address the increase in patients being seen at the emergency department and meet new infection prevention and control measures,” the province wrote in a release.

“It will also meet future needs in support of the government’s goal of doubling Nova Scotia’s population by 2060.”

The estimated cost of the project is $102 million, and construction was awarded to EllisDon.

The IWK, which treats patients from across the Maritimes, has seen a 28 per cent increase in patient volume this fall compared to the same period in 2019.

On average each day, according to the province, the hospital has 1,020 outpatient/clinic visits, around 100 emergency visits and 20 surgeries.

The hospital recently announced that surgeons and anesthesiologists from the IWK will be able to perform some procedures at Scotia Surgery — a private clinic in Dartmouth — in February 2022.

The clinic’s operating rooms will be used for pediatric non-complex, elective, outpatient surgeries including orthopedic, urology, plastic and dental procedures.

“There is a significant backlog of surgeries so over the next 13 months as we go through this partnership it is anticipated we will be able to take 500 children off the list who are waiting for elective procedures,” said Nova Scotia’s Health Minister Michelle Thompson.

Two unions that represent nurses have expressed concern over this decision, saying it will impact already-strained staffing levels.

— With a file from Alicia Draus 

2:02 Nurses’ union raises concerns with IWK’s new partnership with Scotia Surgery