GDH - ED Project Announcement!

Geraldton District Hospital Celebrates Construction Start of New Emergency Department with Formal Community Announcement

(Geraldton, ON – Thursday, October 3, 2019)  Geraldton District Hospital is happy to announce the start of construction of their new Emergency Department (ER). The formal announcement was made in the front foyer of the hospital, with standing room only left. It was a packed space with in-between 75 to 100 attending, in celebration of this long awaited announcement and start of construction.

To help kick off the program in celebration of this new wing of the hospital, Mark Wright, Chief Administrative Officer of Greenstone and the Master of Ceremony, introduced respected Elder and past hospital Chairman of the Board of Directors, Victor Chapais. He opened the Itinerary with an Indigenous Blessing. Then, the Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines; Minister of Indigenous Affairs and MPP for Kenora- Rainy River, was present to give congratulations to the community and hospital personnel. As well, the Mayor of Greenstone, Renald Beaulieu and the Chair of the hospital Board of Directors, Dorene Boulanger. The hospital Chief Executive Officer, Lucy Bonanno, also said a few words, to help kick off this important project.

“Our hospital was officially first opened in July 1963. That makes our current emergency department over 50 years old, and in much need of upgrades, such as, improved area for triaging patients and respecting patients privacy, improved infection control practices via work flow for both staff and physicians, along with meeting new standards for outpatient chemotherapy delivery and perhaps most important is for the treatment of and monitoring of trauma patients; with new upgrades in cardiac telemetry systems, new main staff work station, new digital X-ray abilities, and so much more,” said Lucy Bonanno, Hospital CEO. “This will undoubtedly make an impact in improved quality and best practices, in the delivery of emergency room care to our community.” She also thanked Minister Rickford for attending the opening, and thanking Christine Elliott, the Minister of Health and Premier Doug Ford for approving this much needed Northern project to help end hallway medicine.

The Board Chair, Dorene Boulanger, spoke on behalf of the Board of Directors, and thanked all of the partners involved in making this long awaited project come to fruition. “We are so grateful to all involved, in making this day a reality for our community”, said Dorene.  “Most importantly to Minister Rickford for attending today, also, to the Minister of Health and to the Premier, for working with our team and believing in our vision”. 

“In our Strategic Plan 2018-2022, we set out to develop models and structures that would best optimize patient access and flow, as well as, to implement best practices in the delivery of care and refine services to meet the needs of target populations. Which can now assist in meeting these goals, once the new ER is completed,” stated Lucy Bonanno, CEO of GDH.

“A project of this magnitude is transformational in the impact it has to our community, not only today, but well into the future,” said Renald Beaulieu, Mayor of Greenstone.

Tom Jones Corporation, from Thunder Bay, is the construction company and Perkins Eastman Black from Toronto, are the architects overseeing the design, of the new emergency department.  It should take from 18 to 24 months to complete.

There are so many people and partners to thank that have worked on this project, both past and present, to get it to this point and together, we are ultimately, trying to improve healthcare services for the people of Greenstone and Northwestern Ontario.

Lucy Bonanno

Chief Executive Officer
Geraldton District Hospital

To learn more, follow this link to the Ministry website: https://news.ontario.ca/mohltc/en/2019/10/ontario-expanding-hospital-emergency-department-in-geraldton.html