Submitted by the Niagara Health System
(This Sunday, March 24 marked the official opening of the Niagara Health System’s new hospital in west St. Catharines, Ontario. Up and down Fourth Avenue, running between Hwy 406 interchange and the hospital site,, medical transfer vehicles could be seen, one after another, taking patients from the St. Catharines General and other hospitals to the new site.
What follows is a report from the NHSt on the first day of activities at the new hospital.)
Patient transfer vehicles buzz in and out of west St. Catharines hospital site on first official day of hospital’s opening. Photo by Doug Draper
A milestone in healthcare was marked in Niagara today with the successful opening of the new St. Catharines hospital. Close to 200 patients were safely transported to the site during a complex move that took approximately six hours.
“The move went very smoothly thanks to the hard work and cooperation of the many physicians, staff, volunteers, and our community partners including Niagara Emergency Medical Services,” says Susan Kwolek, Vice President Patient Services, Executive Lead, St. Catharines Site. “We want to thank patients and their families for their patience and trust in us during the transfer.”
Highlights:
222 patients were involved in the move (197 transferred to the new St. Catharines Site, the rest were discharged). Most patients were transferred from the St. Catharines General Site. Mental health inpatients from the Welland and Greater Niagara General sites, as well inpatient nephrology patients were also moved to St. Catharines.
The patient transfers began between 7 and 7:30 a.m. and ended at approximately 1 p.m.
The first emergency patient arrived at the new St. Catharines Site at 6:03 a.m.
The last emergency patient was transferred from the St. Catharines General Site at 12:15 p.m.
At 7:41 a.m. the last baby (a girl) was born at the St. Catharines General Site
At 11:45 a.m. the first baby (a boy) was born at the new St. Catharines Site. His family is from Fort Erie.
“It is an honour to be a part of this incredible day,” says Gloria Kain, Chief Capital Planning Officer. “What a wonderful feeling to watch the heartbeat of the building come to life; it is truly one million square feet of care now.”
All of our other sites remain open. Please visit MinutesCount.ca for important information about emergency medical services in Niagara.
Today also marks the launch of a new Niagara Health System website which includes key information about hospital services in Niagara: www.niagarahealth.on.ca.
(Niagara At Large invites all of you who care to share your first and last names with your comments to share any view you may have on the content of this post below.)
Niagara At Large 
WHOOP-DE-DOO! Another feather in their tin foil caps!
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Why does this new Hospital in St. Catharines look like a colour blind 9 year old who can’t stack building blocks designed it???
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Ummm … having spent more than 20 years as a PR flak, I will take this opportunity to point out that this kind of news/press release will always accentuate the positive. As a matter of fact, there were likely all kinds of problems during the move, but we sure as hell won’t hear about them from the hospital PR machine!
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Congrats to you folks living near the new hospital nice, very nice. I understand they are looking for a name to attach to it. how about “Far-away hospital” ? People in Ft. Erie and Port Colborne might even come up with a flashier name…Lets see what evolves from here.
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Just a comment. Nothing more. Parking seems to be problematic. That is, with the entire obvious parking lot at the corner of 4th Avenue and First St. Louth, completely clogged with cars, today. Professional/sstaff cars? Where does the visiting public park? Just asking. Not at all obvious. I live two blocks away. Tell me where.
Nothing more.
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And, just as I said above, we noted no parking. My husband said people were parking on the walkways and he could not see any spots. Also heard that the handicapped parking is now metered; this from a wheelchair-bound friend who can’t reach the meters, but with help, coins are put in, but who knows how long she will be there, and you cannot top up the meters.
Wasn’t there some planner who had a damned algorithm to figure out parking! As well, word from within is there is a whole floor in the middle with Middle Managers there, none directly interacting with patients. This may just be spurious.
Anybody noticed the headline in today’s daily? Not enough parking at the new hospital. Yer kidding?
A footnote to this from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Back about a decade ago when the debate was on over where the new hospital should go, one of the reasons the NHS often gave for choosing this site on old farmland on the outskirts of St. Catharines rather locating it closer to the urban centre was that there would be more room for parking.
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