Why We Need A New Hospital

CGMH has cracks in walls, sinking floors, low ceilings, halls lined with storage and employee offices housed in portables – it’s not a secret that the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital (CGMH) is out of space.

• Emergency department volume is a key barometer of health system performance. The CGMH emergency department (ED) is less than half the size it should be to treat the more than 37,000 patients annually we historically received, prior to COVID-19.
  
• At present, every time a helicopter lands at the current Hume Street site, the air ventilation intake to the emergency department must be closed due to the close proximity of the landing pad to the building.
  
• The present building represents over 60 years of renovations and incremental additions. Required changes continue to result in pressure on our outdated and undersized facility, which dates back to the 1950's.
  
• More than 70% of its infrastructure is past its lifetime.
  
• The current design and lack of single patient rooms makes infection control and privacy challenging by today's standards.
  
• Patient room size and the ability to incorporate new technology and new services is severely limited. The building structure is made up of concrete portions, steel-framed construction, and a prefabricated, wood-framed Ambulatory wing. Structural grids vary and are as close together as 3 metres.
  
• Contemporary hospital floor-to-floor heights are approximately 4.5 metres to support specialized ventilation, medical gases, electrical systems, and other infrastructure. CGMH does not meet this standard, making it unsuitable to house many hospital functions.
  
• The current structure of the building was not designed to support the weight of additional levels. Thus, vertical expansion is not realistic or possible.
  
• Differential movement between the 1960's and 1990's portions of the east wing has created uneven floors and cracked wall finishes along the expansion joints.
  
• If CGMH does not redevelop in the near future, the current building will not support the needs of patients in South Georgian Bay – patients will need to travel outside of our catchment area for services. Care closer to home will not be a reality for one of the fastest growing communities in Canada.
  

A Remedy For Growing Pains - January 2022

In their January 2022 publication, On The Bay magazine tells the tale of Expanding Healthcare Facilities for the region. Read the full article here.  (page 72 - 74)