Premier Kathleen Wynne visits new tower at Joseph Brant Hospital

Premier Kathleen Wynne was in Burlington Tuesday to "celebrate the opening" of Joseph Brant Hospital's new tower, which officially opened in August.

She called the hospital, which was funded by a mix of provincial and local government funding as well as private donations, a "remarkable, remarkable success story."

"Making investments in infrastructure is important both to the province and to communities," she said.

The Michael Lee-Chin and Family Patient Tower includes 172 new beds, a new emergency department, a new intensive care unit, two new operating rooms and new cancer facilities. 

The province put $371 million into the project. The city contributed $60 million, and a private capital campaign is responsible for another $60 million.

After the ribbon-cutting, Wynne said her government is "looking for solutions" to overcrowded hospitals that have led to patients being treated in hallways and other unconventional spaces.

In Hamilton, "code zero" events where no paramedics are able to respond to calls, are happening more. That's in part due to increased call volume, but also due to "offload delays."

And Brant County has had 459 incidents in 2017 where there are no ambulances available to respond to emergency calls — an average of almost two a day.

Offload delays refer to how long it takes for a paramedic to offload a patient from an ambulance to a hospital bed. In Hamilton, offloading times are routinely well above the provincial average — something that is largely attributed to funding cuts and overcrowding in hospitals.