Calgary General Hospital Explained

Calgary General Hospital was the name given to a series of medical facilities in the city of Calgary.

Early hospitals

Acute Care facility

Calgary General Hospital #4 became the oldest hospital located in the city of Calgary by the time of its demolition in 1998. The facility was known in its later history as the Bow Valley Centre of the Calgary General Hospital after it was merged with the Peter Lougheed Centre, developing into a 960-bed hospital providing a wide array of in-patient and out-patient services.[3] The facility was located in the community of Bridgeland in northeast Calgary, situated minutes away from Calgary City Centre.

Demolition

The Calgary General Hospital was demolished on October 4, 1998, and its services were transferred to the nearby Peter Lougheed Centre[3] amidst the Klein government's immense cuts to the province's health care system.

Ex-premier Ralph Klein's former chief of staff Rod Love said the facility was "old, dysfunctional and badly organized" and had to be closed if health care was going to be modernized.

The demolition was controversial in the wake of continued health care demands in Calgary. Proponents of the demolition argued that the facility was aged and unable to provide efficient service for the money required to operate it, "but the decision left Calgary without an emergency department downtown and destroyed a "state of the art" facility that would (10 years later) be very much in demand".[4]

See also

References

51.0547°N -114.0461°W

Notes and References

  1. Book: Canadian Medical Association Sixty-Fifth Annual Meeting. 1934. Calgary, Alberta. 2013-06-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20160125131642/http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=3548301. 2016-01-25. dead.
  2. http://cdm280501.cdmhost.com/cdm/singleitem/collection/p280501coll7/id/1464/rec/19 cdmhost website
  3. Eisler, Dale. "An Unprecedented Hospital Closing in Calgary." Maclean's, 28 April 1997.
  4. Web site: Calgary Herald "10 Years After" article . 2012-04-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160125131642/http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=919fd648-b080-4b8c-bdd9-7080293d9a8e . 2016-01-25 . dead .