New hospital planning enters crucial internship

Efforts to get a new hospital built in Brantford have entered a crucial stage and everyone’s support is required, says Paul Emerson.

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“The team at the Brant Community Healthcare System have done a good job of putting together various options for the provincial government to review,” Emerson said. “They’ve received strong support from elected officials and now we need the broader community to step up.

“We need to speak with one voice so there is no confusion about what needs to be done.”

A former Brant County CAO, Emerson is the past chair of the Brant Community Healthcare System board of directors. He is now chair of the healthcare system’s redevelopment and properties committee.

“I think everyone is aware that we need a new hospital, it’s been talked about for at least 20 years,” Emerson said. “I think everyone is also aware of our infrastructure problems, the sink hole in the utility tunnel and the boiler breakdowns.

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“What people also need to realize is the amount of work that has gone into the new hospital project and why community support is so important.”

Emerson said local efforts got a boost when Premier Doug Ford visited Brantford General Hospital to announce $2.5 million in funding to help move the new hospital project forward in the planning process.

Since then, hospital and Ontario Ministry of Health officials have been working on various options for a new hospital.

Prior to joining the healthcare system board, Emerson said that he, like a lot of people, assumed the new hospital would be built somewhere near Highway 403.

However, that is not the direction given to the healthcare system by the province. The healthcare system has been directed by the province to use as much of the existing infrastructure as possible.

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But it’s clear to everyone that very little, if any of the existing infrastructure, could be used for the construction of a new hospital, Emerson said.

Based on those two realities, senior healthcare system officials have come up with various options that were sent to health ministry officials for further review in early August.

Plans call for the new hospital to be built where the parking lot is now located on Terrace Hill Street, directly across from the existing hospital.

The goal now is to get the new hospital plan included in the province’s 2025 budget expected in the spring.

That, healthcare officials say, would be an important milestone.

But community support is essential and healthcare system officials and the board will be reaching out to local leaders in Brantford, Brant County, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations and Six Nations of the Grand River Territory to help bolster the healthcare system’s efforts.

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“We’re going to enlist their support to help spread the word of what we’re doing and what we need to accomplish,” Emerson said.

Bonnie Camm, the healthcare system’s president and CEO, said officials are grateful for the support health ministry officials have provided during the planning process.

Camm said it’s also important that the community understands planning for the new hospital continues as problems with the existing structure are being addressed.

Meanwhile, there are other communities also advocating for a new hospital, Camm said.

But Camm and Emerson said Brantford’s situation is unique.

The poor state of the existing hospital’s infrastructure is one issue along with the projected growth of the community.

“According to a Ministry of Finance report that came out in the summer of 2023, we will be growing in excess of 36 per cent over the next 20 years,” Camm said. “That growth, combined with the infrastructure problems that we’re dealing with with demonstrate how badly we need a new hospital.”

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