Collingwood General and Marine Hospital has extended its lease agreement with the Collingwood Legion and will leave the 25-bed field hospital set up for at least another month.
The alternative health facility was unveiled in June. Hospital staff had converted the legion's main hall into a field hospital with partitions and 25 patient beds at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment.
Ready within 24 hours, the facility is there in case the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital (77 beds) gets close to reaching capacity and there's an increase in COVID-19 cases in Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Clearview, The Blue Mountains and even further into the Simcoe Muskoka region. It is part of the regional response plan for COVID-19.
Initially, the hospital's lease agreement with the legion was set to expire in August, but the hospital confirmed it has extended the lease to the end of September.
The field hospital has been designed so it can be packed up and stored when it is not needed. It can be set up in three days. The site, if it is activated, will be staffed by the existing team of healthcare professionals working at Collingwood G&M Hospital.
