ATIKOKAN — Over the past year, the Atikokan General Hospital has been undergoing substantial upgrades to its aging infrastructure.
During this process, two major issues began to rear its head as maintenance staff pointed out several critical spots where rust had formed in the sewer piping and spread throughout the building, as well as the need for the hospital to make serious upgrades to its electrical panel.
On Wednesday, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland announced $550,000 in provincial funding to support the hospital's upgrades and repairs.
“The hospital is almost 50 years old. So, with the 50-year-old facility comes the need for reinvestment in the infrastructure and our government is committed to helping the hospital,” Holland said.
“We've seen an inadequate level of funding in our health care system over the last decade and a half and which has resulted in facilities not meeting the current needs in the health care system. Our government is making record investments into building revitalizing and improving hospitals all across the province, and this is another example of how we're doing that work moving forward,” said Holland.
New hospital CEO Jennifer Learning said it was an issue that was quickly brought to her attention.
“I'm new in this job and when the maintenance came and talked to me about they're having to get the electrician to find old parts from old electrical panels in order to replace what we have that breaks. That's terrible. We need to upgrade our electrical panel. We need our lights and our power and the sewage system needs to be replaced too,” Learning said.
“If the hospital shuts down, where do we put people? Where do we go? We have to start thinking about it. It's crazy.”
During the press conference, Holland recalled having to use the hospital in Atikokan after a bee sting cause him to have an allergic reaction. His experience highlights the importance of having Atikokan’s hospital remain open to the public.
“The vast geographical areas between our communities is something that's not experienced as greatly in the more populated area in Southern Ontario. So the rural hospitals are serving a region that would be severely underserved and would be hours away from medical care. It's not just the town that this hospital serves, but it's the cottage country or the camps that are in the area,” Holland said.
Learning stated that the hospital treats on average around 4,000 people. Some are admitted to the hospital while more critical patients is treated and flown to Thunder Bay.
“We're very isolated. But when you think about maybe, possibly having to close your, doors because we're two hours away from Thunder Bay. It's a very scary thing. So, this [funding] has helped tremendously. It's put a smile on people's faces,” said Learning.
