Greater Halifax is home to one of the best health care systems in North America. According to the Places Rated Almanac, we have the fifth highest-rated health care service in North America and the highest in Canada.
The excellence of our system is evident in our facilities. Greater Halifax has one of the largest concentrations of health care facilities and specialists in Canada. Dalhousie Medical School is one of Canada’s oldest medical schools, and the only one in the Maritimes, boasting world-class research facilities, top educators, and investigators.
The Capital District Health Authority (CDHA) provides core health services to our municipality as well as tertiary and quaternary acute care services to all of Atlantic Canada. Specialized adult health services are also provided to a referral population from the rest of the province and to New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island residents. The total number of staff employed in CDHA facilities is 8500 with the major facilities being the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, the Dartmouth General Hospital, and the Nova Scotia Hospital.
The Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre is the province’s largest health care centre. The QEII has:
- 1100 beds – 175 dedicated to Veterans
- a staff of 6,500 complemented by 2,400 volunteer staff that provide for the care and comfort of patients
Each year the QEII:
- treats 31,000 inpatients and another 70,000 people through the Emergency Medicine Department
- performs 334,000 diagnostic exams and 158,000 outpatient treatments such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy
- sees an estimated 500,000 outpatient clinic visits annually
The QEII is also one of the region’s leading research institutes. More than 200 investigators carry out original research with 250 employees on 500 projects in all areas of patient care.
The IWK Health Centre provides quality care to women, children, and youth in Greater Halifax, the three Maritime Provinces, and beyond. Thanks to the generosity of more than 35,000 donors across the Maritimes, the IWK provides care through a staff of 3,256 supplemented by 808 volunteers.
Each year, the IWK Health Centre:
- delivers approximately 4,814 new babies
- treats Maritime children, women, youth, and newborns who spend approximately 66,980 days as inpatients and 198,182 visits to clinics, day surgery, and emergency
The IWK has 76 adult beds, 76 beds for babies and 120 for children.
The IWK also has 218 active medical and dental staff with expertise in anaesthesia, dentistry, diagnostic imaging, gynaecology, laboratory medicine, pediatrics, pediatric critical care, pediatric emergency medicine, obstetrics, psychiatry and adult and pediatric surgery.