The repurposed and renovated Humber River Hospital Church site, now called the Church Reactivation Care Centre, celebrated its grand opening on December 16, at which time it began admitting patients. This new centre will provide care to less acute patients and ease hospital capacity challenges in the region.

Upgrades to the existing Church hospital site include renovations to approximately 142,000 square feet of space. It also added 92 new beds available now to patients in the Greater Toronto Area, with more to come.

The new beds will provide therapy and rehabilitation care to patients from nearby Humber River Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Those that require less intensive care will have trained staff to support them back into the normal routine of daily live. After final renovations are complete next spring, up to 120 additional beds will be added to the facility.

“This type of space will help us deliver the best care patients need with specialized programs to help patients transition out of hospital into an appropriate care facility – or back home,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, in a press release. “This is an early step to address hospital capacity issues, while our government develops a long-term transformational strategy to end hallway health care.”