Work on the proposed $2.3-billion redevelopment of Juravinski Hospital is set to begin in mid-2028.
According to Hamilton Health Sciences’ website, the ambitious project includes the demolition of the hospital’s four oldest wings.
They will be replaced by modern patient care areas, including 417 newly constructed beds, of which 170 will be additional beds beyond the current capacity for a total of 534 beds, and all beds will be moved to single rooms.
There will also be new in-patient units offering expanded critical, cancer and surgical care and in-patient rehabilitation.
The proposed upgrade is in stark contrast to what HHS was proposing for the site nearly 24 years ago.
Faced with a $40-million-plus deficit, HHS officials announced around early 2000 they were going to close the Henderson as an acute care hospital and turn the facility into an acute care centre in a bid to save money.
It was a time when the then-PC government of Mike Harris was trimming health-care spending.
Rumours of the closing started to surface weeks before the announcement.
Debbie Mattina, a Henderson General Hospital X-ray technician and member of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 794, was also the writer/editor of the local’s broadsheet monthly news publication.
Mattina recalled maintenance staffers at the hospital noticing that new equipment was being delivered to the Henderson, recorded and then moved out to other HHS locations, while several departments were being “starved” of supplies.
“When you needed something replaced, it was never replaced,” Mattina recalled. “That’s what led them to believe something here’s going on, they’re getting ready to close this hospital.”
The union organized a meeting with Hamilton Mountain Liberal MPP Marie Bountrogianni at her nearby office on Concession Street, where they explained their concerns and even arranged for Bountrogianni to tour the hospital to see the shortages for herself.
After a second meeting at Bountrogianni’s office, they all agreed something was going on and the Save the Henderson committee was organized, with Mattina as its chair and spokesperson.
The group started speaking publicly and to the media about its concerns.
“We agreed we had to do something, we had to bring it to the public’s attention that this was happening,” Mattina said.
“We asked the hospital execs (if the Henderson was closing) and they said ‘no’,” Bountrogianni recalled.
Despite the denials, HHS officials announced a few weeks later the Henderson site would be turned into an urgent care centre.
“From our perspective, it didn’t make any sense to close that hospital,” Mattina said.
The committee, with support from other unions and organizations, set to work posting flyers, holding information pickets and candlelight vigils in front of the hospital, as well as other events, including a march from Mountain Drive Park to the hospital for a rally.
In March, a town-hall meeting about the closure packed the auditorium of Sherwood Secondary School.
Bountrogianni, who chaired the meeting, recalled several doctors and other staff from the Henderson spoke against the plan, adding they were concerned about people getting down the Mountain to one of the lower city hospitals if they needed emergency care, especially in poor weather.
“They were talking about how there wouldn’t be enough time to help people in urgent situations, especially on the east Mountain,” Bountrogianni said.
The Mountain MPP said the effort to save the Henderson included all Hamilton MPPs, including Stoney Creek Tory MPP Brad Clark, who was parliamentary assistant to Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer at the time.
“We agreed that we all would support keeping it as an acute care hospital,” Bountrogianni said.
“The three of us (Clark, Bountrogianni and Hamilton West NDP MPP David Christopherson) had created a team Hamilton approach,” Clark recalled. “The three of us agreed to put our partisan politics aside and work together for the betterment of Hamilton.”
The turning point in the fight to save the Henderson occurred in the spring, when the committee organized two busloads of supporters to rally at Queen’s Park and deliver several boxes to Witmer that contained a petition with more than 80,000 signatures to keep the hospital open.
“This was before online petitions,” said Bountrogianni, who noted all the questions from the Liberal opposition and some from the NDP during question period that day were about the Henderson hospital.
Following question period, Bountrogianni arranged for Witmer to meet with Mattina and some of the Save the Henderson folks.
Mattina said she told Witmer that in Hamilton geography does matter and it’s not as simple as moving Mountain emergency cases to another city hospital if the Henderson is closed.
“I said what most people don’t realize is if we have bad weather in Hamilton, the (Mountain) accesses are closed,” Mattina said. “I said if those accesses are closed, people are going to die.”
Then Mattina said she got personal with the minister.
“I said if something happens to somebody I care about, I’m going to hold you personally responsible,” Mattina said.
Even with the strong comments, Mattina said she found Witmer sympathetic to their cause and easy to talk to.
Three days later Mattina said Witmer came to Hamilton with a $43-million cheque to pay off the HHS deficit and later returned to announce not only would the Henderson stay open as an acute care hospital, but the province would look at building a new hospital on site.
A few years later, the Liberal Dalton McGuinty government committed more than $300 million to the new hospital project.
The first phase of the new and current hospital opened in September 2010 and the name was changed to recognize a multi-million-dollar donation to the HHS foundation by Charles and Margaret Juravinksi.
“With the exception of getting married and having my kids, that was the event of my life,” Mattina said.
She also confirmed that Clark was working behind the scenes and advised the committee on which government officials to speak to and what to say.
“My advice to them was to write directly to the minister of health as well as the premier as well as calling the minister of health and premier’s office to let them know what the concerns were,” Clark recalled. “There was a bit of a fight between the political decision-makers and the people who were managing the hospitals at the time.”
Clark said there was much discussion about the future of the Henderson among the decision-makers in the Harris government.
“We just shared with them the folly from a health-care sector with doing what was being proposed, but also from the political mindset,” Clark said. “Why would you pick a fight with so many people in the City of Hamilton about a hospital?”
Ultimately premier Harris made the decision to keep the Henderson open, Clark said.
Ironically, a few months after the province stepped in to keep the hospital open Mattina said she drove her husband Angelo — who was not feeling well — to the emergency department at the Henderson, where he suffered three cardiac arrests and was revived and eventually fitted with a pacemaker.
Mattina said if she had to drive him a further distance to a lower city hospital Angelo might not have survived.
“I would have been a widow 23 years ago,” said Mattina, who noted her husband is now on his third pacemaker.
During the Henderson situation, the Mountain News covered all the rallies and vigils and wrote numerous stories and editorials on what the impact of closing the Mountain’s only acute care hospital would have on the community.
Clark said the articles were read each day by officials in the Ministry of Health as part of the newspaper clippings they received.
“I think this was the first time that people realized what a significant impact community newspaper had in Hamilton,” Clark said.
“The Hamilton Mountain News was the first media outlet that believed (union and opposition MPP concerns) that they were planning on closing down the acute care hospital and turning it into an urgent care centre,” Bountrogianni said.
Mattina said the media coverage helped marshal public opinion to pressure the province to keep the Henderson open.
“In my opinion (the Mountain News) was every bit as responsible for winning that fight as we were,” Mattina said.
On a personal note, I would like to thank the Mountain community for allowing me the privilege of covering the upper city for the past 25 years.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation