St. Mary’s Heart Rhythm Program Expansion to Break Ground in Spring of 2020

St. Mary’s General Hospital is celebrating today after receiving final approval to begin construction of a $13 million redevelopment of its Heart Rhythm Program. The project will bring new electrophysiology and ablation services to St. Mary’s for patients with abnormal heart rhythms, reducing long wait and travel times.

Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, was at St. Mary’s to announce that Ontario is investing up to $7.4 million for the capital project. The remainder will be supported by $5.6 million in funds already invested by local donors. Construction will begin in the spring of 2020 and is expected to be complete by spring of 2021. The project includes:

  • creating a new electrophysiology (EP) lab in operating room space currently shelled in
  • building 3,500 square feet of new patient recovery space
  • expanding cardiac diagnostic clinic space.

“Our comprehensive plan to end hallway health care includes building additional capacity for specialized services in communities like Kitchener-Waterloo,” said Elliott. “This project will enable the hospital to offer a full continuum of cardiac services and provide patients and families with better access to the quality care they expect and deserve closer to home.”

So far in 2019, St. Mary’s has referred more than 80 patients for EP services out of the region with most waiting up to 18 months or more for their procedure.

St. Mary’s Interim President John Woods said “we are thrilled to launch these important new services at St. Mary’s Regional Cardiac Care Centre, one of the top three cardiac centres in Canada. We are extremely grateful for the commitment by the Ontario government to complete our Heart Rhythm Program suite of services and thank our donors for investing in the equipment our clinicians will need. This is a great day for patients, our teams and our community.”

Elliott also announced that St. Mary’s will receive nearly $750,000 as part of Ontario’s Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund. These funds will be used for roof replacements and generator upgrades.

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