Physicians involved in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) Healthcare Redevelopment Project are excited to see their input come to life, as construction continues on the new Northside Health Complex.
Otolaryngologist Dr. Blair Williams, who mostly practices out of Northside General and Cape Breton Regional Hospitals is the physician lead representing perioperative services for the redevelopment project. The ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist, who is also a head and neck cancer surgeon, has been involved in planning since the project’s beginning and says the team has been incredibly responsive to their input.
“Feedback was also gathered from the nursing team, who had a slightly different take on the needs of the spaces. Everything from dimensions, infrastructure and the equipment has been discussed with physicians as the project has proceeded.”
The Northside project includes a new health centre, a 60-bed long-term care home, and a laundry facility. It will include many of the services now available at Northside, including space for collaborative family care teams, an urgent treatment centre, as well as ambulatory care clinics. Additionally, there will be space for continuing care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, expanded dialysis service, mental health and addictions, public health, diagnostic imaging, blood collection, cardiac services, endoscopy, 12 short-stay beds and more. Dr. Williams looks forward to a larger space that will allow room for new technology for the ENT clinic.
“From the time I started working in 2017, the Northside team has been incredibly accommodating and supportive of the ENT needs in an ambulatory care setting, but space is tight, and the infrastructure is aging,” he says. “The new buildings will have more space, up-to-date equipment and infrastructure to allow us to care for more patients outside the operating room, and in a more comfortable setting.”
Mickey Daye, a clinical director with the Redevelopment Project, says it’s been an opportunity to create purpose-built space for many services.
“The Northside General Hospital has served the community extremely well since 1954,” says Daye. “But as healthcare rapidly advances, so have our services, and new infrastructure is required to support those changes. Planning the new buildings has involved representatives from each department and service to provide input and to build a space that will work for them. We’ve also considered how the delivery of some services will evolve in the future and tried to build spaces to accommodate the growing needs and changes in technology.”
The new healthcare facilities are currently under construction in the Northside Business Park. The Redevelopment Project also includes building a new Cape Breton Cancer Centre, a clinical services building and energy centre at Cape Breton Regional Hospital; a new school, a long-term care home, community wellness centre and health centre in New Waterford; and renovations and expansions at Glace Bay Hospital.
More information: CBRM Healthcare Redevelopment.
