Belleville General Hospital has officially marked 140 years of serving the community.
To mark the occasion Quinte News spoke to President and CEO of Quinte Health, Stacy Daub, about how far the hospital has come in over a century of operation.
Daub said the hospital has made some massive progress in recent years.
“One of the most remarkable milestones that we’ve achieved over the last number of years is bringing care closer to home,” said Daub. “Our oncology program has grown dramatically because we’ve built the capability locally to be able to serve people at Belleville General. We have also advanced our neonatal program so moms and babes can stay together in their local communities, surrounded by friends and family, and that’s really our motivation.”
The hospital was opened in 1886, but the process to get it started began in 1799. Back then, there were no hospitals between Kingston and Toronto, leaving a massive gap in accessibility of care and requiring patients to travel long distances for medical procedures. A group of local women came together and spearheaded the cause to open a new hospital for more local care, leading up to the hospital’s founding.
Belleville General hospital has come a long way since then, and is still improving now. Daub says their next steps include working with community partners to provide even more vital types of care locally.
“When I think about care close to home, it might beat your local hospital at Belleville General but sometimes it’s actually right in your home,” said Daub. “In order to achieve that, we need to work with home and community care, our mental health and addictions partners and primary care to build a really robust set of community services.”
While the hospital has come a long way from where it started, Daub also said it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the community around them. Over the years Belleville General Hospital has benefited from an active community that has provided generous donations that made their development possible.
