Hospitals in KW

[Rainrider22]

Honestly we need a new hospital so damn bad I could deal with it not being that close to the core. It's not ideal, but sitting around arguing about parking lots when our hospital is seeing multiple code surges each month - meaning there are zero beds available - is putting actual people at risk. At the end of the day most people going to a hospital are going to drive. Nobody is taking a bike to their day surgery or chemotherapy appointment. If you need proof of this, just go to the hospital. Count the number of bikes you see locked up outside. It's very little.

I don't think there is some sort of conspiracy about this so people can "make a lot of money putting this out near Costco in Waterloo" either. It's more a case of having a limited amount of space to use that would not require a significant investment and alteration to become adequate. Like, sure, there's lots of space around the current hospital, but do you have any idea how much work it would be to navigate the headaches of land purchases, rezoning, demolitions and construction to use it? Or how much it would actually cost to tear The Aud down? Those sites are desierable, but will be costly to utilize which...when it comes to state run health care is something you need to worry about.

I want to see it built in a great location like The Aud or R+T Park. But I'd also rather see a new hospital sooner than later, even if that means it's next to Costco. Keep in mind, they wouldn't be shutting down any of the existing hospitals anyways and they are (if I am remembering correctly) still going to provide emergency care, so the health care resources would only improve for our region regardless of where it is built.

I'm involving myself in the discussion about the project, especially as a professional who does this stuff all the time and am crossing my fingers they make the best choice we can by putting it somewhere sensible, even if it becomes costly. But I'm also just wanting to see us finally build another hospital. We need it now more than ever, especially with the population boom of our region and the nation as a whole. Otherwise, we risk an ever deteriorating health care situation which - as the pandemic demonstrated - doesn't take much to begin fracturing it. 2020-2022 saw us doing incredibly desperate measures from the military building field hospitals in parking lots, sending in soldiers as nursing staff and tempting the government/voters with considering more privatization.

They are shutting down St Marys entirely... and Grand River will not have an emergency department.  This is what people keep missing... So in terms of an emergent situation, good luck.  Might be faster to go to Cambridge if you live in Kitchener.