GUYSBOROUGH COUNTY — Guysborough County’s three municipalities have lined up behind a call to provincial and federal governments to address what local officials describe as a growing public safety risk at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish: the lack of a second, permanent access road.
Councils for both the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s and the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) voted last week to endorse a request from Antigonish Mayor Sean Cameron urging the provincial and federal governments to allocate the “necessary funding and resources” to construct an additional route into the regional hospital.
Mulgrave Mayor Ron Chisholm – who said his town’s council has not been able to meet in recent weeks due to weather-related disruptions – confirmed in a phone interview with The Journal on Jan. 23 that council had also received the correspondence and intends to support the initiative at an upcoming meeting, likely Feb. 3.
“Recent road construction has exacerbated the well-known accessibility problems for this vital health-care facility, which serves our collective populations,” Cameron wrote in his letter, which was separately addressed to James Fuller, warden of St. Mary’s, Paul Long, warden of the MODG, and Chisholm.
“The current route, which is the sole access point, poses significant safety risks due to its path through a flood zone and its crossing of a railroad track,” he noted. “These concerns not only endanger emergency services but also affect routine medical visits for our constituents.
“Given the critical services provided by St. Martha’s Regional Hospital, including surgeries, emergency treatments and medical imaging, we must take action to ensure our residents can access these essential services safely and reliably.”
Cameron explained, “To address this urgent need, I have prepared a letter advocating for the immediate construction of a new, secondary permanent road to the hospital. I believe that your support and signatures on this letter will amplify our call to action and demonstrate a united front in advocating for the health-care needs of our communities.”
The letter, addressed to Guysborough-Tracadie MLA Greg Morrow and Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish MP Jaime Battiste, points out that St. Martha’s Regional Hospital is essential for the eastern region of Nova Scotia Health, offering critical health services to roughly 70,000 residents of Antigonish, Guysborough and Richmond counties.
Those services, the letter states, include 80 physicians, 1,000 staff, 2,500 surgeries, 24,000 medical imaging procedures, 20,000 emergency treatments and 43,000 laboratory analyses each year. The immediate construction of a new, secondary permanent road to the hospital, it adds, is vital not only for ensuring timely access for emergency vehicles and medical staff but also for safeguarding the well-being of patients who rely on the facility.
“I urge you to prioritize this pressing issue and advocate for the necessary funding and resources to expedite the realization of this infrastructure project,” the letter
During meetings held Jan. 21, councillors in both St. Mary’s and the MODG agreed the request was rooted in public safety.
“Through the risk management process there, the hospital certainly has proven that something’s got to be done about this,” Long said. “So I think that’s something well worth our support.”
Concerns about access intensified last summer and again in December, when traffic delays linked to the Bay St. infrastructure project in Antigonish snarled traffic around the hospital loop for hours at a time, raising alarms among health-care workers, emergency responders and local businesses.
At a public meeting in Antigonish in December, residents and hospital staff warned that congestion near St. Martha’s was not merely an inconvenience but a safety risk, citing situations where access to care and emergency response times were compromised.
While the Town of Antigonish is working on preliminary design concepts for an additional access route, Cameron has stressed that progress depends on co-ordinated political support from municipalities across the region.
St. Martha’s Regional Hospital serves as the closest acute-care centre for many northeastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton communities, with close to 90 inpatient beds and a 24-hour emergency department.
The access issue comes amid broader operational changes at the hospital, including a provincewide decision last year to eliminate parking fees. The province has committed to offsetting the resulting revenue loss, which had previously supported equipment purchases at the site.
Regarding the request for a new road in and out of the hospital, Chisholm said, “We’ll be signing it. I’m sure this is a necessity.”
