By Healthcare Facilities Today

The Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, New Brunswick, will be getting $200 million in upgrades.

Canadian officials said spending cuts and other savings have allowed the department to free up enough cash for the renovation program, according to a story on the CBC News website.

Blaine Lynch, the regional director of capital infrastructure and physical resources for Horizon Health Network, said a number of areas in the Chalmers were targeted for improvements during a review in 2007. He referred to the units for intensive care, ambulatory procedures, day surgery, surgery, maternal newborn, gynecology services, post-anaesthetic care, and specimen collection as among those in need of attention.

Lynch said the upgrades would certainly require an expansion of the hospital, probably to the rear of the building. The hospital opened in 1976. It has 315 in-patient beds.

"$200 million is a fair amount of money to do what has to be done," Lynch said in the article.

Read the article.