Hospitals in KW

[bravado]

https://twitter.com/MsFritzzle/status/17...1814633938

Local activist Stephanie Fritz posted a tweet-thread about the public meeting tonight about the new hospital site. I have pasted it below for people who don't want to acknowledge the existence of Elon by clicking.

Tonight is the town hall meeting about the new KW hospital. Not entirely sure what to expect out of this, but I'll try to keep some notes and share what I learn here. I believe there's also an online stream you can watch from home.

Well, definitely a lot to absorb from that meeting! Great turnout, really respective crowd, which is great to see. There were five boards outside the auditorium with a prompt question on each, and sticky notes/markers so that everyone could contribute.

This is by no means exhaustive, just some points I thought were interesting. The full 2 hour discussion is here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lo2HgDKNB0o There is closed-captioning on it, but it's automated and doesn't fully capture everything.

Facts for context:
-There are 400 beds at GRH, and 200 at St Marys. The new facility would have 1000.
-Both hospitals (Grand River and St Marys) would use all three sites (GRH King St campus, Freeport and new site)
-In the next 25 years, people aged 75+ will increase by 170%


There is a strong focus in solving current issues like overcrowding, long wait times, hallway medicine, etc by increasing bed capacity, and building a state-of-the-art hospital that will draw in and retain talent. More than 20 operating rooms are planned for the regional network.

St Marys and GRH have a 40 year history of sharing resources and working in partnership - did you know that they create a single patient card that is shared between both hospitals? Your medical history from one is immediately available at both.

St Marys will close their acute care facilities as part of this change, but there will be future discussions on how that site can be used to support the community.

The GRH King St site will remain open for certain services, and Freeport will be renewed and expanded as well.

Future of Care Together, the group spearheading this development, put out a survey late last year, and received 11,355 responses from the community.

They received 5 site proposals, and have moved forward with investigating 3 of them.

According to Carl Zehr, who is chairing the site selection committee, they expect to announce their preferred site at the end of March. They have not shared the 3 sites to prevent land speculation and an increase in land prices in the surrounding areas.

Re: the 50 acre requirement: this is a target handed down by the province, specifically the Ministry of Health. Most of our major urban hospitals are landlocked and can't redevelop in their existing space, but resources pop up around hospitals over time. (1h9m in video recording)

50+ acres is meant to allow a site to exist in perpetuity - there will always be space to redevelop, rip down outdated buildings, and grow, even in 100+ years. (GRH and St Marys are now 100 years old themselves). The site panel also questioned this requirement when proposed.

The site is intended to have its own helipad. The old helipad by Ontario Seed (King/Wellington) was shut down, and the hospitals currently use the Waterloo Region airport.

Goals for the new hospital facility include:
-avoiding duplication of services
-high sustainability (required to be LEED Silver or better)
-bringing neurosurgery back to the region
-net zero emissions
-universal design: accessible for everyone
-strong staff retention

In terms of timeline, they are aiming for 10 years to open - 5 years of planning and 5 years of construction - to open the new hospital in 2034/35. However, they are clear to say that getting bogged down in refining details endlessly could turn it into a 25 year project.

There was so much more discussed, but check the video to get the whole scoop: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lo2HgDKNB0o

You can also email the team at info@futureofcaretogether.ca with questions and comments - they promise to get back to you ASAP!

There are going to be more town halls and discussions in the future re: our new hospital, so you can also register your email on their website to stay in the loop with that: https://futureofcaretogether.ca