New purposes were possible for old hospital: BAKER

Within a short period of time the remains of the old General Hospital on Queen Street East will be gone, the demolition rubble sorted and hauled away, its benefactors immune to the history these bricks and mortar inherently possess.

It was decommissioned then closed on March 6, 2011, with structures and land put on the market and eventually sold. But the building sat untouched for a decade and a half to become a derelict and dangerous eyesore in the middle of a residential area.

Recommended Videos

History reinforces the legacy of this hospital’s presence and unwavering service; support and compassion shared with those in need of health care. It wasn’t just a building; it was a community comprised of generations of health-care providers and service personnel who tended the suffering and those in need.

The walls that now await disposal are essentially chapters within the memory books that have been meticulously written, documented and remembered by patients, families and staff since the cornerstone for the original General Hospital was laid in 1898.

Back in 1963, when this large front section of the General was constructed, it was a much-needed addition to the existing structure at the time, so much so, it was saluted as an almost complete rebuild to the existing facility.

It was the heart of this hospital for its entire lifespan, even though it had undergone multiple renovations during its life and service to its patients because it held purpose. I know because I worked there for 39 of my 47-year career as a registered nurse.

State-of-the-art for its place in history, it remained in service until it was decommissioned 48 years after it was built. Patients were transferred to the new Sault Area Hospital on Great Northern Road on the same day.

I believe this property or sections of it could have been saved, renovated or restored to serve as a transitional facility for the non-emergency patients and elders who must through no choice of their own go the emergency department at the new Sault Area Hospital and wait for hours and days for hallway medicine.

It could have assumed the role of respite care or for those awaiting admission to a care home and ultimately freed up valued space at Sault Area Hospital. That is

before it was neglected, with no one seemingly stepping up to advocate for the future of health care in this community.

The demand for care by a roster comprised of sicker more complicated patient needs has become critical. Even as patients are triaged, those with more serious health issues move up the queue and that is what triage is intended to do.

It prioritizes the health concerns and urgent needs of the patients who arrive one after another with a litany of histories attached to each of those encounters. Depending on the seriousness of the arrivals triaged by registered nurses, non urgent cases could move down the list instead of up.

Overcrowding in emergency rooms has been going on for many years, but it is a crisis now. Folks are living longer, and the onset of health incapacities arise for many. If they do not have a family physician or nurse practitioner, their options for care are very limited and they must seek help at the ER.

In my humble opinion, government funding and planning for the issues we have been experiencing for too long have been grossly inadequate. Access to basic health care in the public system has become a privilege on so many levels because hospitals are stretched beyond their abilities to provide consistent and easily accessible care.

Staff are overworked into danger levels due to the excessive demands placed upon them. Hospitals are constrained by space, unsafe bed availabilities and age.The availability of licensed family physicians is in critical condition.

From the lens I am looking through, as a nurse, now retired from the bedside after a 47-year career in hospital nursing as well as a cancer patient since 2013, I am convinced that hallway medicine is the product of an insidious and long-standing mindset that if successive governments ignore it, all will go away.

During times of overcapacity as demand in the emergency department exceeds bed availability, hallway medicine can and often does, become an undignified alternative.

This doesn’t go away, it festers.

The onus is on government to jump-start the funding to the public system. Finance and rebuild it for the benefit of those who have no other alternatives but to settle for the real possibility of hallway medicine.

Hallway medicine unacceptable, unsafe and dangerous. Questions need to be addressed.

Why was the General allowed to sit abandoned after being sold to a buyer that was not able to refurbish a property with good bones for a respectable purpose?

Why was it allowed to get to the state it did without a serious intervention to stop the abandonment and rot that fermented in the once fully functional facility that served the sick?

Why was the owner not held responsible in an acceptable time frame?

Why were squatters left to further destroy infrastructure, leave disgusting filth and then pilfer whatever they could?

There are patients awaiting care in the hallways of our new state of the art Sault Area Hospital who are older than the decommissioned hospital building being torn down.

Why?

Patricia Baker is a Sault Star district correspondent, columnist and retired Sault Area Hospital nurse.