BELLEVILLE– Quinte Health Care revealed its short- and long-term plans for Trenton Memorial Hospital during a Quinte West council meeting on Monday evening.
Some of these plans include expansions to the emergency room and in-patient unit and eventually a new hospital. David MacKinnon, QHC board chair, and Mary Clare Egberts, QHC president and CEO, gave Quinte West city council an update on the future of TMH.
“We will need to expand our current emergency room and our current in-patient unit within the next five or so years in order to meet the demand for the foreseeable future,” said Egberts.
Regarding long term plans for the hospital, MacKinnon and Egberts said there is a preliminary discussion about replacing the hospital within the next 15-20 years.
“We have a very significant process underway with the province on a master plan and we are required to look outward 15 years and as part of that we’ve already been giving preliminary attention to what will be needed around 2035,” said MacKinnon.
David MacKinnon said that Trenton Memorial Hospital has grown rapidly and substantially over the past 10 years.
“We currently see over 34,000 patients at TMH and anticipate a nine per cent increase over the next five years and 12 per cent over the next 10 years,” he said.
The hospital offers a number of surgical clinics including urology, dental surgery and cataracts. As a result, the number of patients having outpatient surgeries at TMH has more than doubled in the past decade, from 3,900 outpatient procedures in 2010 to 9,500 in 2019.
Other service additions over the past decade include moving the 20-bed continuing care unit and domestic violence and sexual assault team from Belleville General Hospital to TMH.
A number of clinics have also been added including a medical day clinic, internal medicine clinic, diabetes education clinic, clinical nutrition support, inpatient therapies and a pulmonary functions lab. MacKinnon also emphasized the importance of the COVID-19 testing centre that was established in close partnership with the city of Quinte West.
“We are also planning a new physician-led assessment centre at the TMH for those with minor respiratory issues,” he said.
MacKinnon said it is important to note that in the past year 77% of the patients having procedures done at TMH came from outside Quinte West including residents of Belleville, Picton, Brighton, Bancroft, Northumberland-Lannex and Addington counties.
Mary Clare Egberts said phase one of construction of the new community health hub is currently underway next to TMH, which will allow for additional space in the building to house the Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre and a number of other agencies.
“There is an entire second phase which will have to be built and within that there will be a number of services yet to be determined,” Egberts said. “It would be many different partner organizations in the community that all work together to provide the overall care for our citizens, she added.
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