PUGWASH – A new health-care facility in Pugwash has taken another step forward.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority announced Friday that Architecture49 has been awarded the contract to design the centre that will replace the 51-year-old North Cumberland Memorial Hospital.
The new health-care facility will offer primary health services, collaborative emergency care, laboratory and diagnostic imaging, inpatient care, and rehabilitation services for residents of Pugwash and the surrounding area.
"We are pleased to see the advancement of the redevelopment project," said Allan Horsburgh, vice-president, Stewardship and Accountability, Nova Scotia Health Authority. "This brings us another step closer to designing a new health-care facility that will meet the current and future needs of the community.
"This is an exciting milestone for the redevelopment project and the residents of north Cumberland."
The preliminary designs will be completed this spring. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2019.
Premier Stephen McNeil was in Pugwash in April 2017 to reaffirm his government’s commitment to building the hospital – a project first announced in 2011 by the previous NDP government.
The premier said he hoped a new design would be place by next spring so construction could begin next fall.
Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin said it’s good to see the project moving forward, but wondered what’s been taking so long. She met last month with officials from the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s northern zone to ask for an update.
“The public deserve to be informed on the progress of this facility and I will continue to hold their feet to the fire. Pugwash has waited too long and this facility should have been replaced years ago,” she said. “My role as MLA for Cumberland North is to ensure the people of this area are heard loud and clear by the bureaucrats in Halifax.”
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