N.S. awards planning contract for Atlantic Canada's largest research hospital

CTV Atlantic: Planning contract awarded to VG Nova Scotia has awarded a planning contract for the Victoria General Hospital. CTV’s Sarah Ritche has more.

HALIFAX -- A Toronto-based firm has been hired by the Nova Scotia government to produce a development master plan for Atlantic Canada's largest research hospital.

Health Minister Leo Glavine announced Tuesday that Kasian Architecture had been awarded a $1.9-million contract and would be responsible for presenting a detailed plan for the QEII Health Sciences hospital complex by late 2017.

The project includes planning the expansion and renovations of the QEII's Halifax Infirmary site, as well as some specialized community and outpatient centres.

"The master planning and programming phase is a critical piece of the QEII project," said Glavine. "It will examine health-care needs and trends and what spaces we will need to deliver care over the next 20 years and beyond."

The provincial government announced plans for the five- to seven-year hospital project in April.

The move followed more than a decade of public pressure to do something about the QEII's aging Victoria General Hospital site, which has been plagued by heating issues, rodents, bedbugs, foul water and floods that have cancelled hundreds of surgeries.

Glavine said Kasian would work with seven Nova Scotia consulting firms on a project that will lead to a detailed design phase.

Terry Smith-Lamothe, senior architect for health care for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, said Kasian Architecture comes with a proven track record in the planning and design of health-care facilities.

"They specialize in this and we are very confident their results will live up to their reputation," said Smith-Lamothe.

Provincial officials had said in April that some health services would move from two buildings at the aging Victoria General Hospital site to the nearby Infirmary building by the end of this year, however Tuesday's announcement means that won't happen until a later date.

"After a lot of reviewing, it became evident that we don't have the capacity within these walls at the moment to move the appropriate number of beds into the Halifax Infirmary," said Paula Bond, vice-president of the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

Bond said it makes more sense to move ahead quickly with the development of other major aspects of the project, which includes ongoing renovations to the Dartmouth General Hospital. That work -- at a cost of between $132 million and $138 million -- would create four additional operating rooms and 48 beds.

Another major component of the complex plan includes the demolition of the Centennial and Victoria buildings at the Victoria General site beginning in 2022.

An overall price tag for the redevelopment has not been released, although Premier Stephen McNeil has pledged that the entire project would be completed on budget and on time.

The sprawling Halifax hospital complex is the leading research, teaching and surgical care centre in Atlantic Canada and sees almost one million patient visits a year, including nearly 23,000 from New Brunswick, P.E.I., and Newfoundland and Labrador.