Sylvia Jones, Ontario Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, visited Brantford General Hospital (BGH) on Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
While there, Jones announced the opening of the expanded emergency department and outlined provincial and local health-care investments.
“Today, we’re proud to officially open the new and expanded emergency department here at Brentford General Hospital. Supported by our investment of more than $28-million, your new emergency department is over 7,000 square feet larger than the previous facility,” she said to those present. “It now features new and expanded rooms to support faster patient access and assessments, additional mental health safe rooms, extended-stay and walk-in arrival areas, state-of-the-art ambulance arrival and offload zones, and a new Indigenous family space.”
Jones continued, “This new and expanded facility will ensure that the 50,000 patients supported by the hospital each and every year can continue to get the care they need, where and when they need it, for generations to come.”
Kim Ann Laush, Chair of Brant Community Healthcare System (BCHS) Board of Directors, then acknowledged the partnerships and shared commitment that made the emergency department project possible.
“The $32.4 million redevelopment reflects a commitment to delivering high-quality care and ensuring our patients, families, and healthcare teams have the environment they need to provide and receive the best possible care,” she said. “…We are deeply grateful for the Government of Ontario’s contribution of more than $28 million toward the redevelopment and for its ongoing support of the Brant Community Healthcare System.”
Ken McNaughton, Chair of the BCHS Foundation Board of Directors, added that he was grateful to those who also donated to the project.
“Eight million dollars has been generously donated toward the emergency department expansion project,” he said. “That’s an extraordinary expression of confidence in our hospital, and more importantly, in the people who are cared for. Your donations help provide the local share needed to bring this target to life.”
Discussing the impact of the expansion, Dr. Somaiah Ahmed, Chief and Medical Director of Emergency Medicine at BGH, said the need for enhanced emergency services has been a focus for the Brant Community Healthcare System for more than a decade.
“With approximately 50,000 patient visits every year and growing, the demands of the department have increased,” she said. “By 2030, we anticipate more than 70,000 visits annually, driven by a growing and increasingly complex patient population.
Ahmed continued, saying that as a frontline member of the emergency department, she and the rest of her team were grateful to finally be celebrating the opening of the newly expanded facility. The project, which began in September 2023, has modernized the over 50-year-old facility.
“The last three years of construction within our emergency department has been a testament to the resilience of our clinical team, adapting to change sometimes daily, and navigating the complexity and unexpected of working in the emergency department on the background of redevelopment,” she said. “We have been through such a journey, and we celebrate our new spaces that are patient-friendly, staff-friendly, and have elevated our workspaces with modern amenities and equipment.”
With emergency department visits expected to continue growing, the Health Minister went on to say that family doctors and primary care providers play an important role in reducing pressures on local hospitals by delivering preventative care and allowing less severe conditions to be treated in a clinic rather than a hospital emergency department.
“That’s why our government is investing $3.4 billion to connect everyone in Ontario to a family doctor or primary care provider by 2029,” Jones announced. “Here in Brantford, we have already invested over $800,000 in the Grand River Community Health Centre, which has attached more than 3,000 additional patients to ongoing care.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
