The Ontario government is investing over $15 million to support the planning and design of the redeveloped Collingwood General and Marine Hospital. The hospital's aging infrastructure will be expanded and upgraded and will give more high-quality care for people living in Collingwood.
An article in News Ontario states that the current Collingwood General and Marine Hospital was originally built in 1956 and has been serving a growing community for over 60 years with limited upgrades. This new investment will help the hospital's aging infrastructure to be redeveloped through a mix of new construction as well as renovations.
"After years of waiting, patients and their families can finally look forward to a new and improved Collingwood General and Marine Hospital, ensuring the hospital's dedicated staff and frontline health care workers can continue delivering high-quality care in the community. By investing major hospital infrastructure, our government is furthering our commitment to build a modern, connected health care system and put an end to hallway health care for all Ontarians."
Deputy Premier & Minister of Health | Christine Elliott
The redeveloped hospital will include the following:
- Expansion of key services, including intensive care, emergency, diagnostic imaging and the operating suite
- Additional inpatient capacity to serve more patients and families
- Renovations to upgrade the existing facility to ensure a comfortable environment for patients to receive care
This funding is in addition to the $500,000 previously invested to support early capital planning. Further planning work will confirm priority programs for the hospital.
"We are very pleased to receive approval from the Capital Branch of the Ministry of Health for our Stage One submission, and to move to Stage Two of the five-stage process. The hospital and our community are excited to commence engaging in Stage Two of the process. This announcement represents a significant milestone regarding our hospital redevelopment project."
Collingwood General & Marine Hospital President & CEO | Norah Holder
The Ontario government also is taking further action during the COVID-19 pandemic by increasing the hospital's operating funding for the third straight year. The hospital will receive over $1.9 million in additional operating funding starting this year, representing an increase of 4.2 percent to the funding received by the hospital in 2020/21. This is the third straight year of increased hospital investments across the province.
According to The Star, Stage 2 is expected to take between 12 and 18 months, and will take the hospital from having a "general idea" of a wish list of programs and bed capacity to a "functional planning stage." This would then get submitted to the ministry for a financial analysis. They could not give an estimate as to how long it would take for building to start.
Norah Holder stated that Stage 2 will enable them to take a look at the services and programs that were already looked at during Stage 1. They will not know whether a redeveloped hospital will be able to be built within the existing property envelope until they determine all the services and programs that will be needed in terms of what the size and the needs of these spaces are.
Barrie Today reports that the hospital submitted its first plan to the province in 2016 and has been working with the Ministry of Health's capital branch through the first phase since then, which consisted of a master plan and program to outline future programs and services for a new or expanded hospital for the region.
In step 2, the hospital will have to submit a functional program proposal to further identify the various functions of the new hospital.
The third phase is preliminary designs and the fourth is working drawings. The fifth and final phase is construction.
Collingwood General and Marine Hospital provides a variety of health care services to more than 60,000 people who live and work in the community, as well as over 3.5 million annual visitors who visit the surrounding communities.
