A Centennial Celebration
- September 2008
Watercolour of the current Welland Hospital by Sharon Mercer, Registered Practical Nurse in 1993
Several hundred visitors came to Welland Hospital Site Sept. 21 to celebrate 100 years of hospital care to Welland and surrounding community at a Community Open House. Remarks officially opened the event in the cafeteria and to mark the occasion, in the front row was former hospital volunteer Matilda Barilla, now in her 100th year. Visitors enjoyed remarks by local dignitaries, anniversary cake served by members of the Welland Hospital Auxiliary and took time to look at many displays showcasing our history and today’s high tech programs and services. Tours of diagnostic imaging, lab and the new dialysis centre were a big hit. Clown Lamponi, who is a regular volunteer visitor to inpatients at Niagara Health System hospitals, was on hand to entertain children and Stripes from the Hamilton Tigercats dropped by.
Our Hospital History
At the beginning of the last century, ever-expanding industrialization created new jobs, causing communities like Welland to grow and increasing the need to provide hospital care. The first hospital was a renovated home on Muir (now King) Street, donated by Dr. Cowper in 1906. The cottage hospital consisted of two wards, four private rooms, an operating room, a sterilizing room, and a physicians' consulting room.
A renovated house was Welland's first hospital from 1906 to 1908
After about one year in operation, it became evident that the cottage hospital could no longer serve the needs of the growing community, so in 1907, a group of community leaders came together. This provisional hospital board accepted a gift of land from H.A. Rose and the R. Morewood estate on the south bank of the Welland River on Riverside Drive and started planning for a new hospital.
The same year, the Sir Isaac Brock Chapter of the IODE (Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire) formed the Welland Hospital Ladies Auxiliary to raise funds for the new hospital. They successfully generated $16,000 towards construction costs! Also in 1907, the medical fraternity organized the Welland County Medical Society. By April 6, 1908, the Board received its Letters Patent officially creating the Board of the Welland County General Hospital, hence 1908 being the year marking the official start of the hospital.
A New Hospital
At a total cost of $24,103, the new 30-bed facility began accepting patients in January 1909 and was officially opened on March 1, 1909. It was completely funded by the community. The three-storey structure (plus basement) was 40' x 80', with kitchen, laundry, dispensary, cold storage, dining rooms, boilers and coal room located in the basement. On the first and second floors were public, private and semi-private wards, operating room, diet kitchen, and verandas for the patients. The third floor provided living quarters for staff.
The purpose-built Welland County General Hospital opened early in 1909 and operated as a hospital until 1960 and as a chronic/convalescent facility until 1978
During the first six months of 1909, a total of 60 patients registered at the new hospital and 51 operations were performed. The daily rates for patients in those early days were 70 cents for a ward room, $1 for a semi-private room, $2 for a private room and the total cost of operating the hospital annually was about $4,000.
Several building extensions were added through the 1920s, '30s and '40s, and by World War II, there were 120 beds serving Welland, Crowland, Wainfleet, Pelham, and Thorold townships, a population totalling about 55,000.
Disaster Strikes
In 1943, construction workers were building the south mill at Atlas Steel to increase steel production for the war effort when a ceiling collapsed, trapping men under tons of cement and girders. The workers were rushed to the hospital by car and in the back of trucks. Beds were brought down from the attic and the basement was transformed into a ward to accommodate the injured men. The hospital staff, already overworked because so many had gone overseas, needed the help of anyone in the community with first aid training.
By the 1950's, Welland County General Hospital had been expanded several times, but was too small and inadequate to serve the needs of the growing community
In 1953, exactly 10 years after the Atlas disaster occurred, Dr. G.S.M. Wilson placed a report before the Medical and Surgical Advisory Committee, indicating that conditions at the 130-bed hospital were too small and inadequate to serve the growing Welland community. Discussion among hospital staff, physicians, board members and community leaders culminated in the Board's decision to erect an entirely new 240-bed, $4-million facility, since there was no more land available to add on to the Riverside Drive hospital.
For months, discussion ranged over the site, price and plans of the new proposed site, until the Plymouth Cordage lot was finally accepted. The 14-acre site, owned by the former Plymouth Cordage Company between King Street and Plymouth Road, was chosen because it was readily available, at the reasonable cost of $90,000 (plus a donation of $20,000 towards the new hospital) and easily accessible.
Today's Hospital
The sod was turned on July 24, 1958, and less than two years later, on April 23, 1960, the new Welland County General Hospital officially opened for business. The 'bigger and better' Welland County General Hospital had 259 beds, 51 bassinets, and new features, such as modern operating rooms, emergency receiving and treatment facilities, radiology and pathology departments, pharmacy, kitchen, cafeteria, laundry and administrative offices.
The new Welland County General Hospital, shortly after opening in 1960
The new hospital soon became the hub of a medical complex as the large property became home to a number of outbuildings. The Welland and District Health Unit (now Niagara Region Public Health Department) built its $114,000 centre near the King Street entrance. A modern Nurse's Residence was opened in 1962, now the MacLean Building, where hospital staff and physician offices are located. In the late 1990s, Rapelje Lodge, a long-term-care home, was built using a corner of the property the hospital generously donated to the region. Two medical arts buildings are located adjacent to the hospital and a Niagara EMS Ambulance station is located nearby on King Street.
The original hospital on Riverside Drive was renovated and re-opened to provide accommodation for 82 chronic or convalescent patients and was re-named the Riverside Annex. It operated until 1978, when the Woolcott Wing opened at the hospital.
Since the mid-1960s, there have been numerous expansions to the hospital, possible because of the large land area available. Today, there are 191 beds serving a catchment area of more than 70,000 people with general, emergency and specialty care. In addition to offering inpatient acute care, mental health and complex continuing care beds, Welland Hospital Site owns and operates a 115-bed long-term care unit, called Extended Care Unit, attached to the hospital. A new Dialysis Centre opened in June this year and a recently-built Emergency Department and Ambulatory Care Centre offer care in a state-of-the-art environment. The Site is a location of the Ontario Breast Screening Program and a new Colorectal Screening Program.