It seems that I have spent a large portion of my life as a volunteer or a visitor of all of our St. John’s hospitals.
My husband was a cancer patient at the Old General which is now The Miller Center.
Until he died in 2010 he had nine surgeries including at The Grace, St. Clare’s and the Health Sciences and a standing weekly clinic at the Health Sciences. Doctors and staff were outstanding.
During these years the traffic and parking became more and more intense. In hospital, foot traffic increased immensely so that I found myself (at age 80) guiding visitors to their correct area.
The move of the cancer clinic to Health Sciences was wonderful. The move of the children’s hospital to the Health Sciences site was, equally, an immense improvement.
The move of the Waterford to this site is overkill to the point of stupidity.
Last Friday, my son and I visited my younger son in the Health Sciences.
If I thought the traffic was a problem nine years ago, this trip blew my mind.
Getting near enough to drop me off was jammed with ambulances, taxis, cars and trucks, to say nothing about poor patient and visitors trying to get in or out and stranded in the entrance.
The problem has exploded beyond any hope of anything beyond gridlock, add this to more
traffic more stressed out people, and the added cost of flood plain remediation, the expected cost savings will evaporate.
My suggestion would be not to compound the problem but lessen the burden in that area and build a smaller and more efficient unit on the old site or consider construction on the Grace site on LeMarchant Road which would be more central and quite available to both theHealth
Sciences and St. Clare’s.
Is anyone listening before the shovel hits the soggy ground?
Elizabeth Winter
St. John’s
Related stories:
LETTER: Location for Waterford Hospital replacement is worrying
Newfoundland and Labrador’s new Waterford Hospital moving to Health Sciences Centre (2018)
