04/12/2026
When Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto’s east end was built, it was designed to accommodate roughly 150 patients a day in its emergency room.
Recently, however, those numbers have surged to “unprecedented” levels as the area experiences “unique growth,” leading to 300 or more patients flowing through its doors every day.
“That puts obviously a lot of strain on the infrastructure, which is not only small but also dated,” Dr. Carmine Simone, VP of medical operations at the hospital, said in an interview with Global News.
As a result of the influx of new residents to the area, some of whom then become new patients, the hospital has been forced to “cannibalize” alternative spaces to treat patients.
“What we’ve been able to do over the past five years is use space that hasn’t been traditionally meant or built for clinical care,” Simone said.
The strain on the hospital is one the president of CUPE’s Ontario council of hospital unions, Michael Hurley, says is not unique to Michael Garron.
“Big city ERs are facing this dilemma, in particular, of overcrowding, and it has unacceptable outcomes, including, of course, people being sent home without perhaps the kind of thoroughness that they should expect,” he said, “Or giving up in despair.”
Hurley blamed the provincial government for the strain, saying that while funding has increased in recent years, it has still failed to keep pace with inflation, population increases and an aging population.
- Global News
