Tag Archives: St. Joseph's Health Care

05.16.26
by

The City of St. Thomas is seeking ‘visionary and innovative proposals’ for the former Wellington Street School

September 17, 2012, proved an exciting day in the life of St. Thomas, as students returned to Wellington Street School for the first time in several years.

The former Thames Valley District School Board facility, purchased by the city in 2011 to provide parking spaces for the new consolidated courthouse, was being revitalized as the St. Thomas campus of Algoma University.

“This is a great day for Algoma University, and it’s also a great day for St. Thomas and Elgin County,” enthused Algoma president Richard Myers.

“You’ve made my St. Thomas a richer place today, and it’s a richer place for all of us,” added Andrew Gunn, trustee for the estate of Dorothy Palmer, which contributed more than $1 million to the refurbishment of the heritage school.

Fast forward 20 months, and the headline of that day was being put to the test.

Continue reading →

04.02.22
by

Over the past two years, ‘We’ve all been on a bit of a treadmill’ – outgoing medical officer of health Dr. Joyce Lock

city_scope_logo-cmykThe region’s medical officer of health spent her last day in that capacity on Thursday (March 31) and we caught up with Dr. Joyce Lock in the waning hours of her tenure at Southwestern Public Health.
With just a day to slip by before retiring, she called the countdown “surreal.”
“Retirement is always this vague endpoint many, many miles on the horizon. And to think I am actually there, is astounding.
“We spend so much of our lives working and having our jobs be a major focus in our daily living, so to make the transition to where it will not be, does bring mixed feelings for sure.”
She was an emergency physician for 25 years in the Burlington area before transitioning over to public health and she spent eight years with the health unit.
The last two years completely preoccupied with COVID-19.

Continue reading →

03.26.22
by

‘Trying to make decision-makers . . . understand that things are different in rural Ontario’ – Andy Kroeker, NDP candidate for EML

city_scope_logo-cmykThe three major parties have now announced their candidates to run in Elgin-Middlesex-London in the June provincial vote.
All three were acclaimed.
In the first week of March, the NDP announced Andy Kroeker as their candidate to contest the riding with the Conservatives’ Rob Flack and the Liberals’ Heather Jackson.
Kroeker has been the executive director of the West Elgin Community Health Centre for the past dozen years.
Working in health care, Kroeker says he has witnessed how underfunding has impacted rural communities in particular.
It’s just one item on a substantial “laundry list” of concerns that need to be addressed.
“Certainly I have my concerns about healthcare,” stresses Kroeker, “social services and affordable housing and education.
“So there is a long laundry list, I guess, of things which are challenging in a post-COVID environment.”

Continue reading →