Closing 2 Cape Breton hospitals won't cut operating capacity, officials say

Closing two hospitals in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality won't reduce operating-room capacity, officials said this week.

"Certainly the one thing we're looking at overall is our capacity and the way to reorganize to keep our capacity as is," said Dr. RodMcGory, a surgeon with the Cape Breton Regional Hospital."We're certainly meeting the demands now and don't want to lose any capacity."

The Nova Scotia government announced in June it will close the New Waterford Consolidated Hospital and the Northside General Hospital in North Sydney. That means their two operating rooms will close.

• Premier booed in Cape Breton over decision to close 2 hospitals, expand 2 others

• Cape Bretoners concerned about losing their hospitals get some reassurance

But those closureswill be offset by two new operating rooms at Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney and one atGlace Bay Hospital, said McGory. Operating room staff will also move from New Waterford and Northside to the two other hospitals.

A second operating room at Glace Bay Hospital will perform surgery five days a week, up fromthe current four.

"We should be [at] the exact same capacity, just reorganized into other facilities in anticipation of the closure of those two facilities," McGory said.

Troy Penney, a director with the Nova Scotia Health Authority's Eastern Zone, also said capacity won't be reduced. He doesn't expect wait times to increase and saidstaff will monitor it to be sure.

"This past year, we've actually been able to decrease our wait times for total hip [surgeries] locally, and so 82 per cent of our patients are meeting the six-month benchmark to actually have their hips done, which is a four per cent improvement from last year," he said.

Attractive model

McGory thinks the changes could help attract new medical professionals, as the collaborative practice models are "a great recruitment tool."

"A lot of newer physicians and physicians that are already in practice find [the collaboration] very appealing," he said.

The Department of Health has not said when it will close the hospitals. Both will remainopen until replacement collaborative-care centres have been built in the affected communities.

Read more stories at CBC Nova Scotia