In April, our Hospital Boards, with the support of St. Joseph’s Health System, announced our decision to begin the process of a voluntary merger into a single hospital organization. We are confident that merging our operations will allow us to better deliver on our ultimate goal of better care for patients and a better experience for team members.
Since then, due diligence work has been completed exploring various aspects of operations, finances, and any potential risks that would prevent a merger. Engagements with our teams, communities, partners and funders were key to shaping our plans for coming together and creating the Integration Business Case report.
The Integration Business Case report is a requirement of the Ministry of Health (MOH) for Ontario hospitals that seek to merge into one entity. Last week, both Boards met to review the documents and approve the merger. On October 3, the Business Case was submitted to the Ministry of Health to merge effective April 1, 2025.
This is an important and historic milestone in our journey of bringing our two Hospitals together to form one new organization. We firmly believe that voluntary integration will provide our communities with faster, more modern, improved access to fully integrated, high-quality, efficient care as we leverage our combined strengths, together.
With the Business Case submitted, we must wait to hear from the MOH, and in the meantime, continue our work towards integration, while continuing to move forward with Building the Future of Care Together (BFCT), our joint capital redevelopment project.
As we plan and build, the current Hospital sites will remain operational, with no impact to patient care. We will continue to operate for the next decade at our current sites until the new hospital opens in 2034.
We know there are many questions about the future of the St. Mary’s site after the new hospital is built. St. Joseph’s Health System continues to engage with the communities we serve, partners and teams to determine future opportunities to continue the legacy of care to support community need and the evolution of Catholic healthcare in Waterloo Region.
Thank you for your input and support as we build on our long tradition of partnership to meet the changing needs of our growing communities.
Tim Rollins
Chair, St. Mary’s General Hospital
Board of Trustees
Sandra Hanmer
Chair, Grand River Hospital
Board of Directors