New Halifax emergency centre to open in June
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 | 3:23 PM ET
CBC News
A new $20-million emergency room is set to open in Halifax next month.
The Charles V. Keating Emergency and Trauma Centre at the QEII Health Science Centre's Halifax Infirmary site will open its doors to patients on June 24.
The centre is expected to reduce overcrowding and wait times for patients. It includes more ambulance bays, a mental health suite, more space for staff and privacy for patients.
There are eight more beds than the hospital currently has, but officials can add additional cots to rooms if necessary to bump up the total to 54.
"At the moment, a lot of the wait times are about bed space, but we are hoping that you will at least be seen and assessed within an hour," said Dr. Sam Campbell, chief of emergency medicine at the QEII.
Most weekdays, patients with non-life-threatening injuries can wait around six hours in the emergency department. Ambulances have waited nearly three hours to unload a patient.
Premier Rodney MacDonald stopped at the hospital on Wednesday as the new name for the emergency and trauma centre was unveiled.
"This new emergency department is bigger and better, will increase privacy and infectious control, and improve working conditions," he said.
MacDonald brushed off accusations from both the NDP and the Liberals that he was politicizing the event during an election campaign. He said he was there as premier of the province.
But NDP Leader Darrell Dexter saw it as nothing more than electioneering.
"He's nowhere to be seen when emergency rooms are being closed. Now in the middle of the campaign he wants to take credit when one is opening," Dexter said.
Nova Scotians head to the polls on June 9.
