Corner Brook's new hospital is overflowing, and the old one will pick up the slack
Two floors of the old building will be renovated to house 45 patients
The new Corner Brook hospital, open just eight months, is overflowing with people who no longer need urgent medical attention, or are waiting to go home or to get into long term care, but are still occupying a bed.
So, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services is putting 45 beds into the old Corner Brook hospital, which transitioned to administrative space and a community health centre when the new Western Regional Memorial Hospital opened.
NLHS is planning to renovate two floors of what's now known as the Corner Brook Community Health Care Centre, and hopes it will open sometime in 2025 to accommodate the overflow issue at the new Western Memorial Regional Hospital that opened with 164 beds in June.
Teara Freake, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services' vice-president and COO for the western zone, says the newly renovated space in the old building will support patients in those acute care beds waiting for space in long-term care, and those who need more time to recover or heal from surgeries.
"Transitional care is different. It provides a home-like setting. And it provides the supports for people to do for themselves, to get out of bed, get dressed, with assistance," she said.
Freake says there will be dining rooms instead of a tray service to each room, similar to a long-term care home.
She says freeing up 45 beds would give space at the new hospital to focus more on the backlog of hip and knee surgeries.
"This is a high priority for us," Freake said.
The new Western Memorial Regional Hospital only opened in June of 2024. Many of its 164 care beds are taken up with patients waiting for different care, says the MHA for Humber-Bay of Islands Eddie Joyce.
"This is good news, in the short-term. But why did it take so long?" asked Joyce.
Political ploy
Joyce says the problem stems from a lack of planning at the new hospital, that was 17 years in the making.
He says the extra beds for long-term care and transitional patients has been needed long before today, and says between 60 to 70 long-term care patients use the 164 acute care beds in the new hospital.
"So, when someone comes in and should be admitted, there is no acute care bed to put them in. For someone who has surgery, instead of them waiting two or three days to recover, there is now one or two days," said Joyce.
While there is a lot more parking at the new hospital, the old facility still handles the laundry. Public Health also uses the fourth floor and there are many administration offices in the old building.
Freake says NLHS is in the process of purchasing new equipment, and renovations for the 45-bed care centre will start this week.
She said in October that at any given time between 25 and 35 beds at the new hospital are taken up with patients who longer need acute care.
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Joyce says the most recent move to use the old building is just an election ploy, and expected Premier Andrew Furey and other ministers to make an official announcement about it this month when they visit Corner Brook for annual cabinet meetings.
"It's actually shameful," he said.
WATCH | How using space at the old hospital will help ease backlog at the new one:
Joyce says government has always known that overflow and lack of long-term care beds would be a major issue with the new hospital.
Freake disagrees.
"There was master planning done around the needs of health care for this area. We are at a point now, we are in this facility now for nine months, and it is unfortunate that people are having that experience and we take that very seriously. We have been working diligently on plans," she said.
"We are committed to getting this right and meet the needs in this community."
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