Yarmouth was promised a new emergency department. It still doesn't have one 4 years later

Nova Scotia Liberal Leader Zach Churchill says he's concerned the provincial government is not moving fast enough to replace the emergency department at Yarmouth Regional Hospital.

"This is a critical emergency department," Churchill, the MLA for Yarmouth, said in a phone interview on Thursday.

"We need a modern facility that's big enough to handle the volume of patients that go there."

Last month, doctors in Yarmouth expressed frustration about the state of the facility, which they said is often overcapacity and lacks sufficient workspace, patient privacy measures and infection control. They called for concrete timelines for construction of a new department.

The former Liberal government, in which Churchill served as a cabinet minister, promised four years ago to build a new emergency department double the size of the current space andmoney was committed for design and analysis work, but the tender was not awarded until two years later. That work was recently completed.

On Wednesday, the Progressive Conservative government released its annual capital plan for construction work. Although Yarmouth Regional's emergency department is listed, there are no details about the scope of the work.

• Yarmouth doctors call for concrete timelines to replace 'inadequate' emergency department

A spokesperson for the province's Public Works Department said in an email that officials are "considering next steps on how this project will move forward."

The capital plan allots $146.1 million for hospitals and medical facilities in 2024-25. According to the spokesperson, the government intends to spend some of that on the Yarmouth Regional project.

Churchill noted that as a regional hospital, the site in Yarmouth also serves people from Digby and Shelburne counties, where local emergency department closures are common. On Thursday, Nova Scotia Health announced a series of emergency department closures in Digby through to Tuesday.

"If this government actually cares about fixing health care, they have to deal with the emergency department issues in this province," said Churchill.