By SETH HENNESSYStaff Writer It is 3 a.m. and you need help. You or someone you are with is in need of medical attention and, naturally, you head to the hospital, but who else is already there?  

The St. Catharines General Hospital on Queenston Street will be closed after decades of service to the community. The city has initiated research to examine the effects this will have in the area. Photos by Seth Hennessy

There are nurses, doctors and possibly anyone else of the 100,000 plus members of the St. Catharines population. Since 1870 the General Hospital in St. Catharines has been located on Queenston Street but by 2013 hopes are that the new medical centre, at Fourth Avenue, will be open and accepting patients.

A change of this magnitude in the city’s history comes with its effects, but some are convinced that this change will not be soon accomplished. “Not in my time,” says the owner of Stephanie’s Pots ‘n’ Posies, a florist shop across the street from the hospital. In regard to the new medical centre being operational within the next few years and the present one being cleaned out and closed, she has her doubts. “Two years? How long does it take to build a house?”

The estimated building time for a house is an important fact in this situation since there are plans to have townhouses, apartment buildings and seniors’ housing built on the vacant hospital land. “It’s going to take forever to build houses there,” says a girl who has worked providing security at the hospital and wished not to be named. She also notes that until the present building is demolished or renovated, it will most likely still require security.

“People are going to break in and make a mess of the place.” The city has considered this possibility and made plans before the hospital becomes vacant by paying economic advisers $18,000 to investigate positive scenarios. Although there are at least 69 medical, residential and commercial owners in the area, only 10 responded to the, survey by the advisers, urbanMetrics.

From these responses the idea is that the closing of the hospital will change the area’s status as being unsafe. After having worked in hospital security and living in the city all her life, the unnamed source states that Queenston Street “is not any more dangerous than most other places in the city,” and for whatever trouble there is, “the hospital is not the cause of it at all.”

Jessica Ward, 20, worked at the Tim Hortons across the street from the hospital for 18 months and agrees the hospital leaving will change business but not the neighbourhood. Unlike many franchise locations, the Queenston Street Tim Hortons locks its doors at 11 p.m. and only serves customers through a drive-through during the night because of safety issues.

“I had a knife to my face in drive-through once,” Ward says, “not to mention the countless times crackheads and drunks would try to break in.” She claims some of the area’s residents, not the hospital patrons, create an unsafe environment. The security guard agrees that other than incidents with occasional mental health patients, most security issues come from the “regulars” who only want “food and heat” more than medical attention.

The Tim Hortons regulars include residents but also many hospital staff. “Nurses, doctors, family getting food for the patients. Sometimes one nurse would come in with a long list of coffees.” Subs Plus and Tim Hortons are close enough hospital staff and patients barely have to leave the property to take a break from work or a possibly stressful setting.

Much of this business will not exist when the hospital is gone. Stephanie’s Pots ‘n’ Posies and some of the nearby restaurants receive business from the staff and patients but have existed long enough to have accumulated a dedicated clientele that will continue after 2013.

“I have been busy today, but not one flower has gone to the hospital,” says the Pots N’ Posies owner. The roughly five-kilometre move west from the present general hospital site to the future healthcare complex will usher in many social and economic changes to the Queenston area, but for residents needing medical assistance the biggest change will be distance. “Some of the walk-ins do need help,” says the unnamed source. “They’ll just have to call an ambulance.”