A telephone town hall hosted by Mackenzie Health welcomed almost 16,000 residents from across Vaughan, Richmond Hill and the Township of King last week. During the call, residents heard about the organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and plans for the opening of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. Residents also had an opportunity to ask questions and provide their feedback directly to Mackenzie Health representatives.
As Mackenzie Health prepares to open its second hospital, Mackenzie Health leadership, including Altaf Stationwala, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mary-Agnes Wilson, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Executive; and Dr. Steven Jackson, Vice President of Medical Planning and Chief of Staff, offered important updates to residents across western York Region.
“For more than a decade, our community has anticipated the opening of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital,” said Mackenzie Health President and CEO Altaf Stationwala. “While the opening looks different than what we expected, we are providing a unique system solution to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s critical our community understands what this means for them and what they can expect when we fully open the hospital to the community.”
Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital will open on Feb. 7 as a system solution to help address capacity pressures in the province as a result of the surge in COVID-19 cases. Residents heard how the hospital’s exclusive focus at this time will be on creating additional space to care for critical care and acute care patients to provide relief to the overstretched provincial health system. As a result, the Emergency Department at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital will not be open until the system stabilizes, and programs planned to migrate to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital — including Woman and Child, Inpatient Mental Health and the Inpatient Stroke unit — will remain at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital for now.
Community members also had the opportunity to hear from and ask questions of Mackenzie Health’s Physician Lead in Infection Prevention and Control, Dr. Danny Chen. Dr. Chen shared his expertise and insights as he spoke to how Mackenzie Health is continuing to support the community through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The telephone town hall used a mix of open and polling questions to gather input from residents. Members of the community expressed their gratitude to frontline health care workers for all their efforts to fight COVID-19. They also asked for more details about Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital’s upcoming opening and the rationale for focusing exclusively on additional ICU and medicine beds at this time. Others raised questions around rescheduling of surgeries, the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, and programs and services that will be available across Mackenzie Health’s two hospitals.
To hear the full telephone town hall recording click here