May 22, 2012
The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Susan Sullivan, Minister of Health and Community Services:
Provincial Government Recognizes 90th Anniversary of St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital
Mr. Speaker, I rise in this Honourable House today to celebrate the 90th anniversary of St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital in St. John’s. On May 21, 1922, the Sisters of Mercy officially opened the hospital to care for 23 patients.
By 1939, the Sisters had overseen the construction of a second building that accommodated 100 hospital beds. Services at the hospital would eventually expand to include pediatrics and obstetrics and two further additions to the main building were required to increase capacity. The site would be able to accommodate 300 patients by 1972. In 1979, St. Clare’s opened the first Palliative Care Unit east of Montreal.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the Sisters of Mercy to the delivery of health care and health education in Newfoundland and Labrador. The St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital School of Nursing opened in 1939. In 1968, St. Clare’s was recognized as a teaching hospital affiliated with Memorial University of Newfoundland. Countless health care professionals have benefitted from the education and training they received at St. Clare’s.
Mr. Speaker, our government continues to make significant investments in infrastructure and medical equipment at St. Clare’s. Through an investment of $4.1 million the Provincial Government is moving forward with renovations to the hospital’s emergency department. This project will help reduce wait times and increase access to vital services.
The Provincial Government has put great emphasis on updating and enhancing diagnostic services throughout the province. With the addition of a new MRI unit we are increasing access, speeding up diagnostic testing and improving the delivery of our health care services. This new unit will result in 4,500 more scans each year at Eastern Health and it brings the total number of MRIs located throughout the province to five.
St. Clare’s continues to be an integral piece of our provincial health care system. The hospital has a long history of providing quality care for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Our government will continue to invest in the facility to ensure that it will benefit residents into the future.
2012 05 22 1:50 p.m.