Hospital Announcement Next Week in Pugwash

Nova Scotia’s health Minister will be in Pugwash next week for what the Nova Scotia Health Authority calls “A milestone celebration for the new North Cumberland Memorial Hospital.” 

Randy Delorey will be in the community on Tuesday for a more formal announcement about the proposed new hospital in Pugwash.

The minister will gather with a group who have been specifically invited for the occasion. Citing public health guidelines, the event cannot be open to the general public.

This marks at least the third update for the invited group, many of whom have served earlier efforts to foster a replacement for the aging facility that serves an area well beyond the village of Pugwash.

The health minister is expected to tour the site and reveal the plans for the new North Cumberland Memorial Hospital which will be constructed behind the existing hospital.

The location requires relocation of the life flight, helicopter landing pad which is shown in the photo below, currently under construction behind the Pugwash Fire Department.

The new hospital was first announced in the provincial budget last spring. Premier Stephen McNeil added the new facility to a list of capital projects fast-tracked to help kick start the provincial economy then wracked by the coronavirus pandemic. He said the new hospital would start construction this fall.

The community, especially the medical establishment has been lobbying for a new facility for nearly thirty years. A succession of governments promised a new hospital with at least three formal announcements tied to election campaigns, the most recent in 2017 when Stephen McNeil promised shovels in the ground in 2018.

While many in the community refuse to hold their breath, those close to the project are more confident that this time is real.

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