It’s time to build a health care system that meets the needs of our growing communities, both for today and the future. Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital have partnered to build a new joint hospital and modernize existing hospitals to serve the growing population in Kitchener-Waterloo through their Building the Future of Care Together project.
The Hospitals invite the public to come out to the first Community Town Hall to learn more about the project to date and ask questions of the evening’s speakers. The Town Hall will take place on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Queen Street branch of the Kitchener Public Library. Free tickets will be available to the public starting on January 8 at 9 a.m. through the website futureofcaretogether.ca.
“Our communities are among the fastest growing in the province,” says Ron Gagnon, President and CEO, Grand River Hospital. “This growth is increasing stress on our aging healthcare system. We need more beds and space, yes, but we also need the capacity to deliver on more innovations to meet the current and emerging health and wellness needs of our diverse communities.”
The project includes renewing and repurposing Grand River’s mid-town Kitchener-Waterloo campus into an ambulatory and urgent care centre, expanding the Freeport campus to increase rehabilitation services, and a proposed new joint, state-of-the-art hospital. In the fall a Call for Land Proposals was launched and the Site Selection Panel recently announced three sites have been shortlisted to identify a recommended and alternate site for the proposed new hospital.
“In working together, we’re able to leverage each hospital’s unique specialties and skills, to ensure patients across the communities we serve have access to the highest quality care, technology, and infrastructure,” says Mark Fam, President, St. Mary’s General Hospital. “Our joint plan builds on our individual legacies of care, leveraging technology and innovation to drive the change our communities need to see in healthcare.”
The Community Town Hall will be broadcast through a partnership with Rogers Community TV and participants attending live and virtually will have the opportunity to ask questions. A limited number of tickets are available for the event. All are encouraged to visit futureofcaretogether.ca to register for the event, and to stay up to date on the project.