Hamilton’s COVID-19 field hospital to be dismantled

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Published July 6, 2021 at 6:42 pm

hhsfieldhosp

A COVID-19 field hospital erected outside of Hamilton’s General Hospital is being decommissioned after not having treated any patients.

The Hamilton Mobile Health Unit (MHU) is one of two field hospitals built in Ontario intended to alleviate pressure on the provincial health-care system caused by the third wave of the pandemic.

Construction on it began in April and it was operational by the end of May. The facility was 1,580 square metres (17,000 square feet) and was configured for up to 80 patient beds to treat patients with acute medical needs.

“Ontario is seeing positive signs that progress is being made against COVID-19, and as such, the Ministry of Health has directed Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) to begin decommissioning the Hamilton Mobile Health Unit (MHU),” an HHS press release issued last week said.

“A tremendous amount of work went into planning, constructing, staffing and equipping the state-of-the-art temporary hospital space. Hundreds of people were involved and HHS is proud to have been part of this pandemic response initiative.”

The process to dismantle the state-of-the-art facility is already underway and is expected to wrap up sometime in September.

In what many might consider another hopeful sign of Hamilton’s progress in the battle against COVID-19, the city’s Public Health Services (PHS) announced Monday (July 5) that two COVID-19 assessment centres will close permanently in the coming days.

PHS said in a press release that the closures are due to a sharp decrease in the demand for testing.

On July 10, 2021, the East End Assessment Centre at 2757 King St. East will be permanently closed. The West End Assessment Centre at 690 Main St. West will permanently close on July 15 and the city’s primary testing centre will be St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s Mountain COVID-19 Testing Centre located at Mohawk College until December 31, 2021.

— Photo courtesy HHS

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