After you leave Canada for 6 months, when you come back, you end up doing a bunch of catch up on things like health care. Today, was one of those days. Our new Dr. in London ordered up a whole bunch of blood work and ECG’s for both Judy and myself, so we had to “get on it”…
Last year I had to make the 35 minute drive into the Labs in London to have the blood drawn. Not this year. Woodstock has grown!
Below is a couple pictures off of the Hospital’s website that shows what they have built. They started construction of this Hospital in 2008 and finished it in Dec. 2011. They closed the old Woodstock Hospital and have moved here! They built this on a 25 acre site which is very close to Hwy. 401, and 403.
The new Hospital is 178 beds, 58 more than the old Hospital. Judy and I registered at the Main Entrance, and ended up waiting over an hour for the Lab to call our names… seems they had a printer problem with an HP Printer and were slowed down by that. Next problem was they kind of screwed up my specimen’s so they actually had to call me back to give more! Oh well… that could happen anywhere! This new Hospital offers any service the Human Body may need! A large Emergency Section with a “Fast Track Lane” is a highlight… we will have to see!
We saw Family Names on a couple of the Wings… must have been big time donors! For our American readers, yes, we get “Free” healthcare here in Ontario… It does not cost you anything for routine procedures, but it did cost us $4.00 today to park the Jeep! You have to remember though, we are kind of taxed to death here in order to pay for our “free” healthcare! You will never hear me complain about the healthcare system here in Ontario, as in 2005 I required life saving heart surgery, and got to walk away without paying a dime, and also received the best health care in the world while I was there! (Toronto General Hospital). Cost of heart surgery would have been well over $100,000.00!
I am sure they are still working out all the bugs in the new Hospital… for one thing there was no line up area to register, and lots of people had to be in line, so they were scattered all over the front lobby… I would also hate to see the final bill for this new building, it would cost quite a bit. It will easily serve the 55,000 in the Woodstock area, and also up to 110,000 people on a referral basis in the general area.
Here is hoping I don’t need their services!!! Woodstock is lucky to have it!
Judy Rice is our latest Blog Follower… welcome Judy!
Till tomorrow…
Gotta love the new expansion that is happening we will surely take advantage of it!
ReplyDeletePeople may sometimes complain about the wait time we put up with for some medical procedures, but like you said it's not coming out of our pockets. Still wish they'd lower the taxes though. Be Safe and Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteIt's about time.
We pay big bucks for our med. insurance, and we will complain just a big. People drive me crazy that talk about how bad Canadian medicine is. Well, I had to change a doctor appt. and they couldn't get back in for the appt. for 3 months. I have gone to this doctor for 9 yrs. To say the least I was not happy. So....I changed doctors and got in with one month. I love this new doctor. Glad you are getting the care you desire.
ReplyDeleteSounds like they do have a few things to get worked out yet. But it'll be nice to be able to get all your work done that much closer to home.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the hospital won't lose your second specimens! I guess all new doctors want to start from their own baseline.
ReplyDeleteGood to see a brand new hospital in your area. It sort of looks like a penitentiary from the air doesn't it?
we are indeed most fortunate to have major surgeries done and just walk about with a dime coming out of our pockets..very lucky!..that fast track line in the Emergency sounds interesting..we need to do that our hospital here!!..maybe one day!
ReplyDeleteI remember when they started building that Hospital. The old one was pretty dowdy & we had been in there a few times to see my Uncle Harry when he was admitted one time back in about 2007. I actually lived the first 6 monthns or so of my life in Woodstock. Can't quite remember that though:))
ReplyDeleteGreat facility.
ReplyDelete