Wellesley Central Hospital

• Wellesley Hospital
• The Wellesley Hospital
• The Wellesley Hospital Limited

Wellesley Central Hospital operated as a public facility from 1996 as a result of the merger of Wellesley Hospital and Central Hospital until it was mandated by the government to merge with St. Michael's Hospital in 1998 through the provincial restructuring of the health care system. Prior to 1996, Wellesley Hospital functioned as a public facility from 1942 and a private hospital from 1911.

Wellesley Hospital, the predecessor of Wellesley Central Hospital, was founded as a private hospital in 1911. It was situated on the corner of Wellesley and Homewood Avenue with 72 beds for patients who came primarily from Rosedale and who were accustomed to meals being served on china imported from Limoges, France, and silver cutlery from England. It evolved into a large public health care institution serving not only Rosedale but also the large urban neighbourhood surrounding the hospital and from across Ontario. By 1942 Wellesley Hospital had become a public facility. It opened Toronto's first postoperative case unit in 1955 and established Canada's first Rheumatic Disease Unit, the forerunner to the Canadian Arthritis Society, in 1960.

Wellesley Hospital opened the St. James Town Health Centre in 1973 and founded the Wellesley Hospital Research Institute in 1980, known best for its work in arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases, minimally invasive day surgery and diseases of the immune system. Wellesley Hospital was affiliated with the University of Toronto as a teaching hospital providing education programs for the study of medicine and promoting medical research. In 1984, it opened the Ross Tilley Burn Centre, southern Ontario's regional burn centre for adults with round the clock treatment methods. Two specialty intestinal units were functioning in 1985 and Ontario's only adult Cystic Fibrosis Program in 1992 with a new Health Centre for family and community medicine, a Maternity centre, and a new Mental Health Services in 1994.

Wellesley Hospital attempted mergers with other hospitals in an effort to unite certain programs and services. They came into discussions for a potential merger with Sunnybrook Hospital in the early 1980's that would have potentially relocated Wellesley Hospital to the Bayview site with its university association with the Medical / Health Science Centre, but this merger was unsuccessful. They then approached Central Hospital and a merger with Central Hospital was approved by the Ministry of Health on February 2, 1996. As a result two established hospitals were brought together and provided better services to a greater community.

Central Hospital was founded in 1957 by the doctor-brother team of Paul and John Rekai as a private hospital functioning with quality interpreters able to provide culturally sensitive translations in an environment based on multilingual, multicultural services. The hospital initially occupied the old residence of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind at 331 Sherbourne Street, Toronto. It opened new facilities in 1969 and with a major expansion in 1975 initiated a fully integrated Central Clinic with the hospital to provide total health care services to the community, operated by the Central Hospital Foundation. In 1988, Central Hospital opened the Drs. Paul and John Rekai Centre (aka Rekai Centre) serving as a first multilingual, multicultural, non-profit, nursing home in Canada and the first hospital affiliated nursing home in the City of Toronto.

A Health Services Restructuring Commission was appointed in 1996 by the government to change Ontario's health care by imposing a large-scale restructuring. The process involved at least 36 hospitals scheduled for closure or change in governance over a period of 4 years. As a result a number of hospitals were to be closed. Wellesley challenged and opposed the hospital restructuring both in local campaigns and in the courts, in order to remain an operating hospital. It initiated the “Staying Alive” campaign in this challenge. During this period, Wellesley Central Hospital also initiated discussions with Women's College Hospital in an alliance to save both hospitals from closing. Eventually the Health Services Restructuring Commission ordered the complete take over of the entire operation and management of Wellesley Central by St. Michael's Hospital in 1998 along with the bulk of its programs. Its Arthritis & Autoimmunity Research Centre was transferred to the University Health Network. After the hospital building was closed, the hospital corporation became the Wellesley Central Health Corporation (later known as the Wellesley Institute), which lists as its objectives "four strategic directions; development of the Wellesley Hospital lands, community based research and grants, capacity building through extensive training workshops and coalition development, and framing the urban health agenda through public policy."

Added Apr/12.