New medical sciences building officially opens at Cape Breton Medical Campus

The new medical sciences building at the Cape Breton Medical Campus officially opened on Thursday.

Premier Tim Houston was in Sydney, N.S., for the grand opening of the new medical sciences building at the Cape Breton Medical Campus (CBMC) Thursday afternoon.

The new building is adjacent to the main Cape Breton University campus.

CBMC is a partnership between the Dalhousie Medical School and Cape Breton University, and some of the classrooms in Sydney are connected virtually with classrooms in Halifax.

The new building also boasts a full anatomy lab and mock patient rooms for clinical simulations.

CBMC welcomed its first cohort of students in August. The inaugural class had 30 students who committed to practising medicine in rural parts of the province for five years after graduation.

The new building was initially scheduled to be completed in October 2025, but there were delays, so classes have been held at the former Nova Scotia Community College while construction finished on the medical sciences building.

The second class of Cape Breton University medical students will start studying at the new school in August.

“This is by far the most modern medical school campus in the country and it shows,” said Premier Tim Houston. “You add 30 doctors a year to our health-care system, it’s a big thing. The future looks really bright and this medical school is a big part of it.”

The province announced in March 2023 it would spend $58.9 million to develop the campus, including $49 million for the medical sciences building and related infrastructure, and continue to fund it for two years.

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