{"id":294304,"date":"2025-11-19T23:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/294304\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T23:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:49:08","slug":"promised-expansion-of-cobequid-community-health-centre-up-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/294304\/","title":{"rendered":"Promised expansion of Cobequid Community Health Centre up in the air"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

The Nova Scotia government could be softening on a promised expansion of the Cobequid Community Health Centre in Lower Sackville that was announced almost three years ago.<\/p>\n

The project was part of a massive health-care expansion plan announced by Premier Tim Houston in December 2022.<\/p>\n

Along with projects such as new beds and emergency departments at various sites around the province, the Cobequid was slated to get its first 36 in-patient beds and the emergency department would be assessed<\/a> for expansion or replacement.<\/p>\n

A timeline provided during the announcement three years ago suggested the work could begin in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeFrom left: NDP Leader Claudia Chender, party health critic Rod Wilson, and Sackville-Cobequid MLA Paul Wozney held a news conference near the Cobequid Community Health Centre on Wednesday. (Michael Gorman\/CBC)<\/p>\n

But with little news since then, members of the NDP caucus staged a news conference outside the hospital on Wednesday to draw attention to the lack of information since that initial promise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a government that says that they are a government of action, that says that they have been elected to fix problems \u2014 in particular health care \u2014 and in this facility behind me, we have seen nothing,\u201d NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen no fix and, in fact, things are getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sackville-Cobequid MLA Paul Wozney said community members and the people who work at the hospital deserve answers.<\/p>\n

Government urged to keep promise<\/p>\n

Lower Sackville has grown exponentially in the last 15 years and visits to the Cobequid have climbed with it. It\u2019s not uncommon for patients to travel from Halifax, Dartmouth, Windsor or elsewhere to seek services, adding strain to a site that does not have a 24-hour emergency department and must sometimes turn away patients.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Wozney drew attention to a day at the Cobequid where patients had to wait more than 70 hours<\/a> for services due to overcrowding at the site. The situation prompted one doctor to contact Wozney, who in turn reached out to Health Minister Michelle Thompson on Nov. 5 about the situation.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Wozney told reporters he\u2019s still waiting to hear back from the minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cTim Houston and Michelle Thompson need to keep their promise to fix health care and provide the people of Sackville with the peace of mind that they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still assessing community need<\/p>\n

Whether that promise will be kept \u2014 or if it will even be the same \u2014 remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

An initial statement from the Health Department touted the government\u2019s track record on health care but provided no status update for the Cobequid expansion.<\/p>\n

Pressed for further details, a Health Department spokesperson provided a followup statement that suggests nothing final has been decided.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the master planning process, we will gain a better understanding of the needs of the community and when we have that information work may begin at Cobequid Community Health Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-294304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}