Waterloo Region is a Thriving Community Missing a Critical Piece: A New Hospital Infrastructure in KW

Waterloo Region can’t wait any longer to put plans in place for new hospital facilities to better serve the needs of our rapidly growing and thriving community.

We need more hospital beds. We need more hospital services. The last few years we have seen an influx of people moving to our community and our population is projected to grow significantly over the next 20 years. We need hospital capacity to accommodate this growth. We need facilities engineered and built to modern design standards to replace our aging hospitals and provide patients the care they deserve. We need world-class infrastructure to enable our hospitals, in partnership with local businesses and post-secondary institutions, to fully reach our potential in health research, innovation, technology development and learning.

The reality is we were dealing with chronic hospital capacity pressures and limits to our ability to be innovative as a result of our aging facilities well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the past two years of navigating COVID-19 have provided a snapshot of the severity of our space challenges and what our future may hold if we don’t move quickly to build a new hospital and expand our capacity to serve this community.

Waterloo Region is one of the fastest-growing jurisdictions in the country

The unfortunate reality in today’s fiscal environment is that the process to secure provincial approval and funding to build new hospital infrastructure in Ontario is complex and lengthy. There is intense competition from regions across Ontario to tap into limited provincial funding to help pay for new hospitals. It can take 10 to 15 years on average for a project to go from an idea to reality, though in the spirit of this community we will aim for it to be less.

That’s why we are embarking on this joint project now. We need to be prepared for the population boom coming our way.

Largely thanks to this thriving and active business community, Waterloo Region is one of the fastest-growing jurisdictions in the country. As a result, we will need nearly double the number of hospital beds we currently have in the next 25 years.

According to the Ontario Minstry of Finance projections, population growth in Waterloo Region is projected to continue climbing quickly, rising from nearly 580,000 to approximately 840,000 over the next 20 years – an increase of 45%.

Compounding the challenges of growth, our population is also getting older. Over the same timeframe, the number of residents older than 75 in Kitchener-Waterloo is expected to

We never want to be in that position again.

Like hospitals elsewhere in Ontario, capacity pressure throughout the pandemic impacted our ability to provide care and forced us to take the drastic step of suspending nonurgent surgeries and non-emergent services.

We never want to be in that position again. We are determined not to be.

To make this a reality, St. Mary’s General Hospital and Grand River Hospital are building on a long tradition of partnership to plan for the future of hospital services as part of an integrated healthcare system in our region. Together, we are looking to secure the support of the provincial government for new and renewed, state-of-the-art hospital infrastructure. This would include a new site in Kitchener Waterloo that would be jointly used by both organizations. Our executive leadership teams and boards are currently at the preliminary planning stages of this joint project. We have shared our proposal with the Government of Ontario, but the final master plan will be determined at a later stage of planning after community consultation and government approvals. Decisions over where the proposed hospital would be located, timing of construction and the future of our current sites have not yet been made.

There is much to be determined as the planning process unfolds but one thing we know for certain is that collaboration will allow us to build something better together than we ever could by going it alone.

grow by nearly 170%. Individuals in this age group are more likely to require hospital care and health care services as they age, increasing demand on our resources.

Historically, our region has had far fewer hospital beds per capita than average in Ontario and across Canada.

Based on projected population growth, we know we will need to add at least 515 additional patient beds in our region by 2046, almost doubling the combined capacity at our two hospitals to over 1,100 beds.

Historically, our region has had far fewer hospital beds per capita than average in Ontario and across Canada. Prior to the pandemic, we had 1.1 beds per 1,000 people, compared to the Ontario average of 1.4 beds and the Canadian average of 2.0 beds for the same number of people. Our bed ratio is lower than any Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) member country. For example, Germany has an average of six beds per 1,000 people.

We need infrastructure that will allow us to not only to provide high quality care for our community today, but to grow to meet the needs of tomorrow.

While we do hear from patients positive feedback about the care we deliver, we also hear that facilities need to be better. Our facilities are beyond their lifespan. Parts of St. Mary’s and Grand River are almost a century old, and half of the current facilities in operation are over 50 years old. The health care needs of our community already exceed the capabilities of our current infrastructure, making it a challenge to provide efficient care. Although we are known for our innovative approaches and efficiencies, this is an opportunity to modernize our approach to health care through new facilities. We need infrastructure that will allow us to not only to provide high quality care for our community today, but to grow to meet the needs of tomorrow.

In addition to improving patient care, an infrastructure project of this size will generate significant economic impact for our region, including hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, and act as a catalyst for other significant development investments. As our business community continues to grow and pursue new business opportunities, a new and modern hospital is necessary to attract and retain business, investments and talent to the Region. Our growing and thriving community needs this hospital project to truly realize its full potential as a tech and innovation hub.

Over the coming months, we will need the support of our community to help build a case for this project and engage the provincial government on why the time is right to invest in a new world-class hospital for Waterloo Region. We’ve pulled together before for the benefit of our community on similar projects, such as the recent Two-Way All-Day GO campaign. We’ll be sharing details soon on how you can get involved and lend support to ensure Waterloo Region gets the hospital infrastructure we need for our growing and thriving community.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lee Fairclough

Lee Fairclough is President of St. Mary’s General Hospital

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ron Gagnon

Ron Gagnon is President and CEO of Grand River Hospital.