West Lincoln renovation plan is puzzling

RE: RECENTLY ANNOUNCED RENOVATIONS AT WEST LINCOLN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

I am a retired employee of Hamilton Health Sciences. Beginning my career as engineering services supervisor, (as it was known then), at McMaster University Medical Center in the mid 1980s, and retiring in 2006 as manager of maintenance, responsible for facilities maintenance and minor renovation projects across all HHS sites. I am also one of the many thousands who stood in the snow, outside Grimsby High School some two decades ago, protesting the then-planned closure of our small but absolutely indispensable hospital.

Your proposal to renovate a significant part, or all of West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby, quite frankly leaves me puzzled. My experience, and that of most other knowledgeable professionals, has shown that it is always easier, and much less costly, to build new. Attempting to rehabilitate older structures has always proven significantly more expensive than “building from the ground up.” As a long time resident of Grimsby, I am confident that Hamilton Health Sciences can find the necessary available space in Grimsby to build a new WLMH. Thus saving a great deal of money, and leaving the residents of eastern Hamilton and west Niagara with a much needed, fully functioning hospital.

Edward J. Verhaeven, Grimsby