We’re celebrating the new year and marking NewmarketToday’s four-month anniversary by counting down your top 10 favourite stories. These are the stories that have been most shared by you among your network, on your social media accounts, and by email. These are the stories that struck a chord, inspired, shocked, dismayed, and amused you. Thank you for following us, and for helping to grow our influence and reach since our Sept. 4 launch.
No. 8
Remember This? Southlake hospital's beginnings found in 1920s with young doctor's persistence
Shared 483 times | Sept. 29, 2018
Local historian Richard MacLeod, well known by his History Hound moniker, writes a regular column that has quickly became a favourite on NewmarketToday, with our readers embracing the opportunity to learn more about our roots and the influential people who have helped shape Newmarket. In particular, this article about the history of Newmarket's hospital captured your attention.
In a refrain that remains familiar in current times, the article outlines how the hospital, known as York County Hospital until September 2000, has struggled to meet the demands of a burgeoning population since it was first established.
York County's roots can be found in 1911 at a temperance hotel at the corner of Main Street and Millard Avenue. The Royal Hotel owner, A.W. Evans, set aside rooms to be used for convalescent patients — until town council refused to grant him an allowance for light, water and taxes to equip the rooms as a hospital.
The true founding father of Southlake Regional Health Centre is Dr. Lowell Dales, an influential visionary who, until his death in 1966, promoted many social and industrial projects that firmly established Newmarket as the Hub of York County.
When the young Dr. Dales completed medical school in 1918, specializing in obstetrics and surgery, he opened an office in his home, as was the practice then. In 1920, with Newmarket's population blossoming to 3,000, he became frustrated by the lack of medical facilities in town. At great inconvenience, critical cases had to be sent to Toronto. To alleviate this situation, he converted his home into a private hospital with 18 beds. His father-in-law, Dr. Joseph H. Wesley, helped with the supply of equipment. In 1923, 97 operations were performed there.
Financial difficulties arose and, in 1924, Dr. Dales appealed to the Newmarket Board of Trade to create a public institution, with citizens contributing $5 as charter members and $100 as life members. A provisional board of directors was formed and provincial charter obtained under the name York County Hospital, providing for a government subsidy of 50 cents a day for each patient.
The rest is history, as they say, with Southlake operating today as a 426-bed full-service regional hospital that annually has more than 113,000 visits to the emergency, 24,000 in-patient admissions, and 530,000 out-patient visits. As a regionally designated site, Southlake provides advanced levels of care to more than one million residents in York Region, Simcoe County and Muskoka.
