In the last month of 2024, the province finally confirmed a new hospital for Collingwood in the future – and it only took about 10 years of asking.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones travelled to town during a snowstorm to announce, in the staged basement cafeteria of the current Collingwood General and Marine Hospital (CGMH), that the Ontario government had approved the hospital's latest request for a new building at a different site in town.
Jones also brought news of a $94 million grant, which the provincial statements all touted as money to "build a new hospital." The fine print revealed the money is to help cover the costs of designing the new building.
For several years, the owner of land on Poplar Sideroad has offered 30 acres of his property as a donation if the province ever approved a new hospital in Collingwood. Jones' announcement was the first time the province committed to building a new hospital rather than rebuilding the existing building on the same site.
CGMH president and CEO Mike Lacroix was thrilled to say. "the new hospital will be built on a generously donated 32-acre site located on Poplar Sideroad."
Lacroix confirmed the provincial promise was the last piece of the puzzle required to go forward with the land donation. The landowner, John DiPoce died on Dec. 12, the same day as Jones' announcement, but he left instructions to protect the future hospital lands and donation deal.
CGMH began making requests to the province for a new hospital as early as 2010. It wasn't until 2021 that the province acknowledged it supported a hospital redevelopment in Collingwood, but the government wouldn't commit to building a new hospital at that time.
Currently, there is a tender out for design work on the hospital, but Lacroix estimated there wouldn't be any shovels in the ground until the fall of 2028, with the hospital tentatively opening as early as 2033.
The plan for the new hospital is to increase most existing services, with some new, or expanded offerings. There will be "up to" 132 beds in the new building with 98 inpatient beds and potential for 34 more beds as needed. All in-patient rooms in the new build will be private.
While the province usually will chip in the lion's share of the new building cost, and will continue to fund the operation of the hospital, none of the equipment will be covered.
That means the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital Foundation will be tasked with raising 10 per cent of the capital costs for the new building (about $50 million) and every dollar needed to pay for all 132 of those beds, all the equipment, supplies, furniture, and anything else.
The foundation plans to raise $100 million for the project.
Plans for the former Hume Street site have not been made. Lacroix joked that they have eight years to figure that out.
In the meantime, renovations are still constant at the current CGMH site, which opened a new X-ray suite, a new CT scanner and suite, and will soon open its MRI suite for the first time.
The new X-ray machine and suite opened in September with a state-of-the-art, $1.5 million machine purchased thanks to two donors.
In December, following the news of a new hospital on the horizon, staff cut the ribbon on a new CT Scanner, making CGMH one of the first hospitals in Canada with the new technology. This new machine replaces a 12-year-old scanner and the new equipment plus a room upgrade cost about $2.1 million.
Jamey Gilroy, the manager of diagnostic imaging and echocardiography for CGMH, said the new machine will last between eight and ten years, which will be about the time the new hospital is supposed to open.
The current proposal for a new Collingwood hospital suggests two CT scanners – doubling the current capacity.
Speaking of doubling, the hospital foundation is currently raising funds to buy two mammography machines to replace the one machine it has now.
And early next year CGMH will cut another ribbon in its diagnostic imaging department, this one for the new MRI suite.
The province announced at the end of 2022 (also on Dec. 12) it would fund the operation of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine in Collingwood. The hospital didn't have an MRI service prior to the announcement.
However, the provincial funding only covers operation and it was up to the local hospital foundation to raise money to buy the MRI machine and to cover the costs of converting 2,000 square feet of office space in the CGMH into an MRI suite.
The hospital announced it "broke ground" on the $5 million MRI suite project at the beginning of December and expect construction to wrap up by the end of this summer and patients getting MRIs in Collingwood by the fall of 2025.
The MRI machine will also have to be replaced by the time the new hospital is built.
CGMH is keeping a website dedicated to the new hospital project updated with the latest news and frequently asked questions. You can follow it at yourfuturehospital.com.
