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Third hospital and more than 600 beds needed to ease ‘significantly strained’ health care in Brampton, council says
Posted: February 19, 2025
(February 19, 2025)
By: Ryan Rumbolt, In Brampton
City council is calling on the province to commit to building a third hospital and ease Brampton’s “significantly strained” health care system and now that there’s a landowner on board.
Brampton Civic Hospital is the city’s only full-service health care facility, and even the promised Peel Memorial upgrades won’t meet growing health care demands according to council.
And with other comparable cities and regions like Hamilton, London and Waterloo which all have three hospitals, council is calling on whichever party wins the upcoming election to bring another facility to Brampton saying the city needs at least 660 more hospital beds.
“We’ve now found a really good land owner that wants to be a part of it,” Palleschi said in city council chambers on Wednesday before putting forward a motion asking the province for a funding grant for a third hospital.
The motion was seconded by Mayor Patrick Brown and passed unanimously by council, with Palleschi saying the call for a funding pledge is a “more formal” ask following years of planning.
The provincial average for hospital beds is 220 per 100,000 residents, while in Brampton that number is less than half at 96, Palleschi said. And with an anticipated population boom of between 300,000 to 400,000 new residents in coming years due to the province’s housing targets, Brampton will need “a proportional increase in health care services.”
Palleschi said securing a funding grant from the province “would send a strong signal” to Bramptonians “that their health care needs are a priority.”
Peel Memorial, which is set to be upgraded with a new 24-hour Emergency Department that will cost around $1 billion. Premier Doug Ford and the Conservative government have pledged over $21 million to the project while the city’s portion of the Peel Memorial upgrades and a new cancer centre coming to Brampton Civic Hospital will cost some $125 million.
The upgrade plans include the new 24-hour Emergency Department replacing the existing Urgent Care Centre, 250 inpatient beds with space for more in the future, rehabilitation and continuing care services, enhanced mental health and addictions services, and additional services for seniors.
Health care advocacy groups like the Ontario Health Coalition have been calling out what they call “hallway health care” in Brampton.
Mayor Brown has repeatedly called on the province to greenlight funding for a third full-service hospital, saying the Peel Memorial upgrades are a good step but not a silver bullet to solving Brampton’s health care concerns.
