After finally opening Vaughan’s new hospital, Mackenzie Health still needs to hire 300 to 400 staff

The hospital started with elective surgeries a week prior to its official opening

Yorkregion.com
June 7, 2021
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Starting at 7 a.m. on Sunday, June 6, patients poured into the newly opened emergency department of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital.

Other departments such as the woman and child, in-patient mental health and in-patient integrated stroke departments have also officially opened.

“We're finally opening the hospital as a full-service hospital,” said Altaf Stationwala, president and CEO of Mackenzie Health. The official opening also means that Mackenzie Health now has two hospitals.

“The emergency department is open and that will start to drive the volume that comes in. We probably will have another 50 or 60 patients transferred from other sites in Richmond Hill and our reactivation centre in Toronto,” Stationwala said.

Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital — Canada’s first smart hospital — will be accepting about 20 mental health patients on Sunday, and the number is expected to rise. Its mental health department has about 30 beds. “So we go up by about eight more beds than we have at Richmond Hill (hospital),” Stationwala added.

With COVID-19 straining an already backlogged health-care system, the new hospital began conducting elective surgeries a week before its official opening on Sunday to test its new waters and help those in dire need.

However, preserving some of the beds for COVID-19 patients means that some elective surgeries are still restricted.

“That’s not unique to us, that’s all across the province,” Stationwala said, adding that elective surgeries are also being done in Richmond Hill.

Michael Tibollo, MPP for Vaughan-Woodbridge and associate minister for mental health, explained how even prior to COVID-19, his office had long received letters from patients that needed elective surgeries, but the situation worsened with COVID-19.

“We are going to work very hard to bring those (backlog) numbers down again,” Tibollo promised.

Four months before its official opening, Vaughan’s new hospital had the sole responsibility of relieving pressure from other hospitals by treating at least 514 COVID-19 patients.

The plummeting numbers of COVID-19 infections are a major factor behind the opening.

“Well, because the pandemic numbers are dropping, so there's not as much pressure for other hospitals. So we worked with the province and they said, ‘Based on the declining numbers, based on the vaccination rates, this is a good time,’” he explained.

So far, Mackenzie Health has recruited more than 1,000 new staff to enable both hospitals in Vaughan and Richmond Hill to grow.

“Obviously with the pandemic, we've needed even more staff, so we're not ever really going to stop recruiting,” he added, ranging from doctors, nurses and physios to admins.

When asked about how many people Mackenzie Health needs to hire, Stationwala said, “We probably need to recruit another 300 to 400 staff still.”

Stephen Lecce, MPP for King-Vaughan and minister of education, who described the new hospital as a “game changer,” said, “It's also very promising to see the hospital referred back to what its purpose was, which was to serve the people in Vaughan, King, York Region and families across the GTA.”

The Ontario government invested $1.3 billion toward the $1.7-billion project to bring this new hospital into fruition. The local share, required to help cover costs for technology and medical equipment as well as a portion of the construction costs, continues to be supported by community donation through the Ultimate Campaign.

Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua is the chair of the Ultimate Campaign.

“The generosity of our community has raised more than $200 million toward our $250-million Ultimate Campaign goal so far, allowing us to mark this important milestone as we open the first hospital in the City of Vaughan,” Bevilacqua said.

The mayor said Vaughan is one the fastest-growing cities in Canada and York Region’s population is expected to grow by more than 35 per cent over the next 20 years, making this hospital a must-have.

The hospital was named after the Cortellucci family in honour of their donation of $40 million.