Province announces two key hospital investments
The Ontario government has announced a combined investment of more than $8 million to support expansion and renovation work at two key southern Ontario hospitals.
On March 31, it announced it would invest an additional $3 million to modernize and expand North York General Hospital. The redevelopment will improve access to care for patients and families in North York and the Greater Toronto area by adding new patient beds, building a new emergency department and creating more operating room space.
“By investing in the expansion and redevelopment of North York General Hospital, we are delivering on our government’s commitment to build a stronger, more resilient health care system and end hallway health care,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “This additional investment will ensure the hospital can better meet the growing needs of the community and provide much-needed care and services now and into the future.”
The funding builds on a previous investment of $2.5 million, for a total of $5.5 million to plan the hospital’s new infrastructure and upgrade its facilities.
The redeveloped hospital is planned to include a new inpatient care tower with new and expanded operating rooms, a new emergency department and over 100 new inpatient beds that would bring the total number of beds at the hospital to over 500. These additional beds will allow the hospital to meet the needs of the fast-growing population it serves.
Renovations to the existing building will also expand key services, including medical device processing, laboratory and pharmacy. As phases of the project are completed, families will be able to look forward to increased access to inpatient, emergency and acute care services.
North York General Hospital is one of Canada's leading community academic hospitals and offers a wide range of acute care, ambulatory, and long-term care services across multiple sites. Over 118,000 patients visit the hospital’s emergency department for care each year.
“With the generous support of the Ontario Government, NYGH is moving forward with the largest hospital expansion since we opened our doors more than 50 years ago,” says Karyn Popovich, President and CEO, North York General Hospital. “Our leading-edge new patient care tower will allow NYGH to meet growing community needs, and deliver an outstanding patient experience and the highest standards of care for generations to come.”
In Hamilton, meanwhile, the province will invest over $5 million to redevelop St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s psychiatric emergency service. The funding will help double mental health and addictions emergency services at the hospital.
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton provides emergency mental health services at its Charlton Campus to approximately 4,000 patients per year. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital has experienced a 33 per cent an increase in urgent psychiatric care referrals from 2019 to 2021.
To better address the growing needs of the communities the hospital serves, the space next to the current emergency mental health department will be redeveloped into two patient care areas. One area will be for patients experiencing more severe mental health and addictions crises who need to be cared for in a more specialised environment, and the other will be for those who would benefit from other medical care and mental health supports.
The new patient care areas will be separated by a centralized staff and physician space, with separate entrances and new patient and family waiting rooms that will enable the hospital to provide high-quality emergency mental health and addictions care, while improving patient confidentiality and accessibility.
Ontario is working with both hospitals to finalize the early stages of the planning process, which includes identifying programming, operational and space requirements and assessing how each project can further help its community.