Ottawa Civic Hospital
In light of recent events, it seems appropriate to turn my attention to the health care system available in Ottawa. Pictured here is the Ottawa Civic Hospital (not the one I was in), one of eight hospitals servicing the close to one million residents in the area.
Mayor Robert Fisher saw that, along with the Spanish flu and Typhus epidemics of 1918-19, there came a dire need for one –singular–large hospital to provide many essential services. This was a completely different train of thought regarding health care at the time. Ottawa had already three independent hospital facilities when Fisher proposed, via the Civic Hospital Act of 1919, that these three hospitals be purchased and shut-down to make way for one municipal-run hospital be built on the outskirts of the city (in anticipation of population growth). Once dubbed as "Fisher's Folly", this bright idea came known as "Fisher's Foresight", when the Ottawa Civic Hospital opened its doors in 1924 with 550 beds and a School of Nursing.
Posts
3 comments:
What a grand old building!
Politicians with foresight like that, and the will to continue projects they truly believe in despite opposition and ridicule, are few and far between. Bravo to Mayor Fisher.
Does anyone know if this was the hospital (this old buiding specifically) where polio patients were placed in 1953? If so, I may have been there!!
I recall being moved to an isolation hospital as ewll. Was this it or was there another? Thanks.
Hello there, Mr. Leitch
I've done a quick search and nothing came up. The only thing I could suggest is that if you wanted to pursue your research further, to contact the Civic Hospital directly They would surely have an archives and record of a polio ward.
Best of luck with your search. And thanks for visiting. :)
Post a Comment