Bayers Lake outpatient clinic nears opening date

The Bayers Lake Community Outpatient Centre will soon welcome patients.

Nova Scotia Health says the $259.4-million new build has come in on budget and on schedule — three years after construction began.

The facility will see the relocation of some services from the QEII Victoria General and Halifax Infirmary sites in Halifax, while other services at the clinic will be an expansion of existing services at other locations. 

For example, dialysis treatment stations at the Dixon Centre will be relocated to the new facility. The ambulatory clinic at the Victoria General and Halifax Infirmary sites will also be relocated, as will the orthopedic and outpatient physio currently at the Halifax Infirmary.

A family practice clinic on Parkland Drive in Halifax will also be moving to the site in Bayers Lake. 

The centre will also be home to other services such as diagnostic imaging (X-rays, ultrasounds and bone density scanning), a musculoskeletal and rehabilitation program, an eye care clinic for adult and pediatric patients and blood collection service.

Cynthia Stockman, a nurse practitioner and site lead of the Bayers Lake Community Outpatient Centre, said the site’s location will hopefully make it easier for patients. 

“There’s lots of parking on site and the site is going to be easier to get to,” Stockman said, noting how close the site is to highways 102 and 103. 

“People won’t have to drive down to downtown Halifax and have to try to find parking or have to navigate the busyness of going onto the peninsula.” 

Stockman noted there is also plenty of parking at the Bayers Lake site. 

But the thing Stockman is looking forward to most is how patients will feel when they visit the site. 

“The great hall, which is the centre point of the building where patients enter, is bright, open, there’s lots of windows with natural light and it’s a really inviting and warm and friendly space,” she said. 

Stockman said the design of the building is intended to improve patients’ experiences. 

And it’s not just what’s within the walls of the Bayers Lake facility.

“There’s outdoor eating areas, there’s benches, there’s gardens, there’s walking paths around the building,” Stockman said.

“The building really is the total package for patients and their families.” 

And it’s not just patients who have a new facility to look forward to.

Stockman said staff are excited to be working in a new building with new equipment.

“Although it’s not necessarily innovative equipment, it’s new equipment,” she said. 

Stockman said there are only a few finishing touches that have to be done before the centre opens on Nov. 20. 

“It’s really small touch-ups, like the final touches,” she said. “Most of that will be done for opening day but there still will be a few things that will still be outstanding and have to happen, but the building is pretty much complete.”

Stockman said most of the space in the new build has been dedicated to specific services “so there’s no empty space that we could develop further for something else in the future at this point. It would have to be another build.” 

The Bayers Lake Community Outpatient Centre’s core hours of operation will be on weekdays. 

However, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Health said several services will operate on evenings and weekends. 

“As the site opens and ramps up over the coming weeks, further department-specific hours of operation will be communicated directly with patients and through the NSH website,” the spokesperson said.