Woodstock General Hospital

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 hospital contained a small operating room and thirty patient beds. In 1924 the West Wing was added to the property, an X-Ray department in 1925 and a Children’s Warn in 1935.

By 1951, Woodstock General Hospital had fifty-eight doctors and 119 beds which included 26 children’s beds and one 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 increased bed capacity to 155 beds 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. On November 9, 2012 a demolition contract was awarded to Priestly Demolition. The old hospital was demolished in 2013.

A very cool security guard allowed me inside to take photos, though the morgue was off limits. These photos are quite old.