Ontario Renewing Health Care Facilities in Thunder Bay
December 8, 2023
Province Investing Over $2 Million in Critical Infrastructure Upgrades and Improvements at St. Joseph’s Hospital
Thunder Bay — As part of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government is improving hospital and community care by investing over $2 million this year to support critical upgrades at St. Joseph’s Hospital. This funding is part of the government’s investment of over $208 million provided through the Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund and the Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund to 131 hospitals and 58 community health facilities across the province.
This investment will enable replacement of the Nurse Call System at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Nurse Call Systems are a crucial part of care and safety, ensuring that clients and caregivers have a ‘voice’ especially when help is needed urgently. Modern systems offer enhanced capabilities and prioritize staff response to where it is needed most when moments count.
“This systems upgrade will offer the functionality necessary for St. Joseph’s Hospital to continue offering superior care to their patients,” said Kevin Holland, MPP Thunder Bay-Atikokan. “Facilitating appropriate and responsive access to communications improves not only the patient experience, but also provides some peace of mind for our hardworking, dedicated nursing and medical teams who are committed to the delivery of quality care each and every shift. In addition, the reporting and analytics capabilities of a more modern system will be invaluable to capacity planning.”
Ontario is providing $200 million to hospitals through the Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund and over $8.4 million to community health service providers through the Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund. This funding from the province allows its health care system partners to address urgent infrastructure renewal needs such as upgrades or replacements of roofs, windows, security systems, fire alarms and back-up generators.
“Ensuring Ontario’s hospitals and community health facilities have the infrastructure in place to deliver the high-quality care patients expect and deserve is a priority for our government,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “This year’s increased funding will help these facilities address priority renewal needs while ensuring people can continue to receive the world-class care they need in a safe and comfortable environment.”
“Nurse call systems have been a standard in hospital care for years, but their function has evolved. Modern systems have enhanced capabilities that prioritize staff response to the most urgent calls first and integrate with dignity-promoting tools like bed sensors so that people at increased risk of falls can be as independent as possible,” said Janine Black, President & Chief Executive Officer of St. Joseph’s Care Group. “St. Joseph’s Hospital will put this investment to good use, fully replacing our nurse call system in the months to come.”
With Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the province is moving quickly to expand and modernize Ontario’s hospitals to ensure patients and their families are able to connect to the quality care they need, when they need it, closer to home.
QUICK FACTS
- To ensure as many hospitals as possible get funding for infrastructure renewal projects, Ontario has increased the Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund by $25 million for 2023-24, representing an approximately 14.3 per cent increase from 2022-23.
- The Community Infrastructure Renewal fund has increased by $776,913 this year, representing an approximately 10.2 per cent increase from 2022-23. Community health facilities are publicly funded and provide a range of programs to patients across the province, including primary care, community mental health and addictions services, allied health care such as physical therapy and respiratory therapy, and programs and services delivered by a public health unit.
- Ontario’s investments over the next 10 years will lead to $48 billion in health infrastructure across the province. These investments will increase the number of people hospitals can care for, build new health care facilities and renew existing hospitals and community health centres.
- As of the end of 2022, Ontario has approved 50 hospital development projects that will create more than 3,000 new hospital beds in communities across the province by 2032.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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