New Moosonee hospital to replace 74 year old facility in Moose Factory

When the Weeneebayko General Hospital (WGH) in Moose Factory opened in 1949, it had 200 beds and was filled with tuberculosis patients. 

But recently, due to the range of services offered by the hospital to all of the James Bay Coast, the number of beds has come down to 37. 

 "We're really everything," said Rob Gagnon, who has worked in the building with the health authority for the past 13 years. 

"We run roughly 30 specialty clinics within family medicine," he said while giving CBC a tour of the hospital. 

"Dental, mental health, non-insured health benefits to help indigenous patients with travel, not only from their communities here to Moose Factory WGH to get acute care, but also to go down south for higher risk and other services that we don't offer here."

Gagnon added that WGH has a new CT scanning room at the facility and a complement of 12 physicians who take on a variety of roles. 

I'm just hopeful we can get there given the unique challenges that we face being in a remote community.- Lynne Innes, CEO of Weeneebayko Area Health Authority 

"One week they'll be primary care, the next week they'll be [in the] emergency department, the next week they'll be traveling up the coast to their assigned community," he said. 

"So the physicians here are real chameleons."

However, this multipurpose, wooden roof building with three floors and no elevators won't be operational for much longer.

Across the river in Moosonee, construction has begun on a brand new multi-million dollar hospital for the James Bay coast.

It's a big project for the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority, which oversees health care for all the communities of the coast, and comes after years of delays to replace the aging hospital on Moose Factory Island.

Lynne Innes, the president and CEO of the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority, said the new hospital is long overdue.  

"It's very difficult to meet the needs of the people as well as quality control in an aged facility like what we currently have and we're also running out of space," she said. 

The plan for a new hospital to be built in Moosonee has been in the works for 50 years. 

"We're finally going to have a state-of-the-art facility where we can all go and be proud of," she added. 

Despite the long wait, Innes is not worried about future delays. 

She said the health authority has a great partnership with the Ministry of Health and the federal government to support the build, and ensure that the project is on time and on budget.

"I'm just hopeful we can get there given the unique challenges that we face being in a remote community."

As for the current hospital, Innes believes it will be decommissioned once operations successfully move to Moosonee and the replacement of an ambulatory care centre is built.

Some community members have expressed apprehension over the relocation of the hospital to Moosonee and believe it should stay in Moose Factory, Innes acknowledges. 

"But unfortunately those decisions were made long before we were in office." 

She says more space is the reason behind the move to Moosonee.

Other hospitals and nursing stations along the James Bay Coast, Attawapiskat and Fort Albany will also be getting some facelifts, a new roof, as well as some upgrades such as added safe rooms. 

The federal government continues to run the nursing stations in Kashechewan and Peawanuck.