Premier Doug Ford was in the city on Friday morning to help cut the ribbon and officially open the Cambridge Memorial Hospital's new facilities.
The $287 million project includes over 400,000 square feet of renovated space housing patient care units, laboratory and diagnostic imaging departments, a rehabilitation department and three dedicated endoscopy suites.
Of the total cost, the province pitched in over $220 million.
"There's no better way to spend money," Ford said.
"And we're going to continue investing."
The province intends to invest $50 billion in health infrastructure over the next 10 years to create 3,000 new beds in Ontario.
The revamped wing-B at CMH is set to utilize mostly in-patient units, including inpatient surgery and medicine.
A new laboratory that opened earlier this year and a section of surgical day care that opened in 2024 are also part of the new space.
Regional chair Karen Redman praised the collaborative work that took place to get the project across the finish line.
"This newly renovated wing is a testament to the impact of the many partnerships we have and the benefits of working together to build the future of healthcare," Redman said.
"We approach healthcare as a system throughout the region. Waterloo region is one of the fastest growing communities in Canada and we know that puts pressure on essential services. This expanded footprint at Cambridge Memorial will help address these pressures."
While it's expected that the additional space will help ease wait times by increasing patient capacity by over 30 per cent, there's still work to be done locally and across the province.
Just down the road in Brantford this week, the Brantford General Hospital put out a notice saying it was experiencing "significantly higher patient volumes and wait times" in its emergency department in part due to staffing shortages. Similar issues have been felt in Cambridge over the past several years.
Ford pointed to the recent appointment of Dr. Jane Philpott as chair of the province's new primary care action team as a step in the direction of ensuring every resident has the access to the professionals they need.
"She's going to make sure we connect patients to doctors," Ford said.
"Even though we have the highest connection in the country, it's still unacceptable. We have to make sure we continue hiring doctors, which we are, over 15,000."
Ford said he'd also like to see hospitals reserved for more serious operations with simpler procedures being done elsewhere to ease backlog.
"I believe and I believe the hospital does, take the simple operations out of the hospitals down the street, paid by OHIP," he said.
"Even the orthopaedic surgeons I've talked too, they said we don't have operating rooms, let me go down the street and open up a clinic paid by OHIP and we'll take the cataracts out, the hip and knee replacements."
The hospital will be hosting a community open house on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to showcase the renovations to residents.
