Fonds - Woodstock General Hospital fonds

Following several typhoid epidemics and six years of debate, the Woodstock General Hospital was opened in 1895 and was situated on a hill between Riddell and Wellington Streets in the Town of Woodstock. The original building, part of which was still in use in 1997, contained a small operating room and thirty patient beds. In the subsequent years additions were added to the hospital such as the West Wing in 1924; the X-ray Department in 1925; and the Children’s Ward in 1935. By 1951 there were fifty-eight doctors in practice and one hundred and nineteen beds in use including twenty-six for children and one in isolation.

In 1954 work began on a new addition to the hospital, which saw most of the original structure torn down and replaced with a new wing facing Riddell Street. This new wing, comprising of a basement and three floors, included a laboratory, pharmacy, kitchen, administrative offices, and emergency department. The new addition also saw an increase in bed capacity to one hundred and fifty five and created two new operating rooms. On May 15, 1955 the patients were transferred to the new building. In 1967 another major addition was added to the hospital. Known as the Farthing Wing, it included physiotherapy facilities and a new laboratory. In 1997 renovations to create a new surgical suite, recreation room and chemotherapy and dialysis unit began.

In 2008 work started on a new three-story 32,515 square metre facility, on Juliana Drive, which would be double the size of the current facility and would include a twenty-two bed in-patient rehabilitation program, surgical services with five operating room theatres, a maternal women’s health unit and a dedicated pediatric room, as well as improved mental health facilities. In 2011 staff members and patients were moved to the new hospital and the old Woodstock General Hospital was subsequently torn down and the land sold.

Nursing training began the first year the hospital was opened and in 1914 Patterson House was built as a nurses’ residence on the northwest corner of Wellington and Brant Streets. In 1930 the first formal class was accepted, consisting of seven students. Formal classroom teaching was done on the first floor of the west wing in 1924, but was later moved to the basement of Gissing House, an additional nurses’ residence, in 1937. In 1952-1953 the Candlelighting Ceremony was started to mark the completion of the Junior set of lectures and the official acceptance of the student into the school. In 1962, the Ethel M. Finkle building was opened to house the new School of Nursing. The school was built to accommodate 25-30 students per year and provided up-to-date facilities which included classroom space, laboratories and a library. In 1968 a new residence named “Vance House”, in honour of Dr. James A. Vance, President of the Hospital Board, was opened to accommodate the students.

The Woodstock General Hospital School of Nursing continued until 1974 when the Woodstock campus of Fanshawe College opened its own school of nursing.