This year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of GRH’s Freeport Campus providing care to the residents of Kitchener Waterloo. And we’re inviting you to take part.
We’re planning to celebrate throughout the year, with a highlight being a garden party in late June. For that, we’re asking for you to provide memorabilia and patient and staff stories from the past.
If you have an idea, please contact Susan Young at 749-4300 extension 7328 or susan.young@grhosp.on.ca and we’ll follow up with you.
Then and now…
In 1911 The Berlin Sanatorium Association purchased a 15-acre property from Benjamin Shantz, near Freeport on the Grand River. In 1916 instead of opening as a civilian sanatorium it was turned over to the Dominion of Canada Military Hospitals and Convalescent Homes Commission. The first patients were 30 tubercular soldiers.
In 1920 the sanatorium was returned to civilian use and was operated by the Waterloo County Health Association In 1929-30 in response to an acute bed shortage experienced throughout Canada, the Waterloo County Health Association built the first half of the three-story main treatment building. In 1932 the main treatment building accommodated 103 patients. In 1937-38 a new wing was added to the main treatment building. In 1957 with declining admissions, Freeport Sanatorium became the first sanatorium in Ontario to initiate chronic-rehabilitative care for non-tubercular patients. In 1970 the tuberculosis division was closed.
Today, GRH’s Freeport Campus houses inpatient rehabilitation beds for stroke, general rehab, complex medical, palliative, long term ventilation, restorative care, neuro- rehabilitative, geriatric assessment and specialized mental health. There are outpatient clinics serving rehabilitative care, memory assessment, pulmonary care and specialized geriatric patients. There is a satellite dialysis unit and the Waterloo Wellington Breast Centre.