West Park Healthcare Centre

Last updated
West Park Healthcare Centre
West Park Healthcare Centre.jpg
West Park Healthcare Centre
Geography
Location170 Emmett Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates 43°41′20.54″N79°30′29.82″W / 43.6890389°N 79.5082833°W / 43.6890389; -79.5082833
Organization
Network University Health Network
Services
Beds316
Links
Website www.uhn.ca/West_Park
Lists Hospitals in Canada

West Park Healthcare Centre is a hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Contents

Founded in 1904 as a tuberculosis sanatorium, the facility was renovated in 2023 and reopened as a rehabilitation and continuing care hospital.

Overview

West Park Healthcare Centre is a six-story, 1,250-square-foot (116 m2) facility with 316 patient beds. [1] The hospital specializes in rehabilitation and continuing care for patients recovering from severe health conditions such as stroke, amputation, lung disease, and life-changing illnesses. [1]

Two wings of the hospital are dedicated to inpatient care, and one wing is for outpatient services. [2] There are two 10-bed tuberculosis inpatient wards. [1]

History

In 1896, William Gage, a Toronto businessman and philanthropist interested in tuberculosis prevention, helped found the National Sanitarium Association in an effort to built a tuberculosis hospital in Toronto and fund research into the disease. [3]

Toronto residents—believing tuberculosis was a hereditary "disease of the poor"—opposed building a tuberculosis facility near local neighbourhoods, and enacted local bylaws to stop the hospital. [3]

Toronto Free Hospital for the Consumptive Poor, circa 1915 Toronto Free Hospital for the Consumptive Poor.jpg
Toronto Free Hospital for the Consumptive Poor, circa 1915

In 1903, Gage purchased Buttonwood Farm near Toronto, a 40-acre (16 ha) property next to the Humber River, and established the Toronto Free Hospital for the Consumptive Poor. [3] The farmhouse was converted to a doctor's quarters, chapel, and patient's dining room; old streetcars were used to house patients. [3] [4]

By 1910, three new buildings had been erected, including the Queen Mary Hospital for Consumptive Children, the first hospital in the world dedicated to tuberculosis in children. [5]

Gage—knighted for his philanthropic efforts in 1918—spoke of the “purity of the air” at the riverside location, and "fresh-air" treatment was provided for patients, who tended a vegetable garden and a farm containing 50 pigs and 1,000 hens (the animals were swept away during Hurricane Hazel in 1954). [3] [4]

The combined facility received patients from across Ontario, and at one time had 667 patient beds. [5]

Additions to the hospital include the Ruddy Building in 1938, and the Gage Building in the early 1980s. [2]

The facility was renovated in 2023 and reopened as West Park Healthcare Centre. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "West Park Healthcare Centre". Infrastructure Ontario. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  2. 1 2 Immen, Wallace (June 4, 2024). "Redesigning a rehabilitation centre for the future". The Globe and Mail.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "A Short History of the National Sanitarium Association (NSA)". National Sanatorium Association. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
  4. 1 2 Longwell, Karen (April 4, 2021). "This Toronto hospital used to have a farm for tuberculosis patient". BlogTO.
  5. 1 2 Burke, Stacie (2023). "Review of Building Resistance: Children, Tuberculosis, and the Toronto Sanatorium" (PDF). Eruid. 115 (1): 140.
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