The ambulatory care clinic at the Saint John Regional Hospital is getting a major facelift.

Work officially begun last week on the long-awaited expansion and renovation of Clinic 1.

The 7,000-square-foot space will be transformed into 14,700 square feet, improving accessibility privacy and patient comfort

Jamie Gallagher, president of the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation, said the clinic has not been updated in four decades.

“The space has been in great need of renovations in terms of privacy and individual rooms for patients who come into Clinic 1,” Gallagher said in an interview. “It was high time that the space was renovated.”

Gallagher said the upgrades will also ensure the clinic can meet future patient volume demands.

A rendering of the expanded J.T. Clark Family Foundation Ambulatory Clinic. Image: Submitted/Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation

Clinic 1 serves more than 40,000 patients from across Atlantic Canada annually — a number that is expected to reach 46,000 in the next five years.

The expansion will include the Mohs Micrographic Surgery Clinic, IV Day Clinic, Casting Clinic, four procedure rooms and eighteen exam rooms.

“Of course, with that, it’ll open up operating room space because, right now, some of those procedures are done during OR time,” said Gallagher.

In 2017, the hospital foundation embarked on a $12-million campaign to expand and renovate Clinic 1.

The goal was reached in 2021, in part due to a $1-million gift from lead donor the J.T. Clark Family Foundation.

Officials say the expanded clinic is expected to begin serving patients in the spring or summer of 2024.

In the meantime, existing services have been relocated throughout the hospital, said Gallagher.