At Monday’s Quinte West council meeting, the city was lauded for its support of the redevelopment of the Kingston General Hospital by members of the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation.
In 2018, the City of Quinte West committed $395,000 towards the redevelopment of KGH. Thus far the city has paid $238,000 of that pledge.
Susan Creasy, chair of the volunteer committee for the foundation, explained the importance of the support from Quinte West.
“Given the magnitude of work to be done, the next phase of Kingston’s health care modernization has the potential to touch every citizen in south-eastern Ontario. This is an ambitious project, but with incredible support like yours together we can accomplish great things.”
The modernization of Kingston General Hospital is a massive project expected to span across the next seven years approximately. The massive renovation involves taking down four buildings on the current KGH campus to build a new and modernized patient tower. Emergency room expansion, new labs, surgical suites, neonatal intensive care unit and two 36-bed in-patient floors are just some of the features of the new expansion.
During the presentation Tom Zsolnay, president and CEO of UHKF, presented numbers that showed how important the connection between Quinte West and Kingston Health Sciences Centre is.
In 2020, there were 574 in-patients in KHSC facilities as well as 10,301 outpatients and surgical care patients from Quinte West. That marks a 35% increase in in-patients and a 29% increase in outpatients and surgical patients from Quinte West since 2015. Zsolnay also remarked that 21% of the population of Quinte West accesses outpatient and surgical care annually.
One of the most significant numbers presented was the number of Quinte West residents visiting KHSC cancer centres. On average, there are 4,560 visits to the cancer centre from Quinte West residents. Since 2015 there has been a 29% increase in patients accessing cancer centre care from Quinte West.
Quinte West Mayor Jim Harrison stressed the importance of the city’s support of KHSC.
“We’re stronger together and you’ve just indicated just how strong we are, and how much you’re doing to be able to look after, as you say, a seamless healthcare system”
Zsolnay explained that the Ministry of Health expanded the scope of the project in 2019 which increased the local share amount for the project to $115 million. The RFP period for the project is expected to begin in the fall of 2021 with the contract expected to be awarded in the spring of 2022. Design and construction is expected to take place from 2022 through 2028.
