Women's College Hospital

Women's College Hospital
Women's College Hospital from Elizabeth Street
Geography
Location	76 Grenville Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Organization
Care system	Public Medicare (Canada) (OHIP)
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	University of Toronto
Services
Emergency department	No
Speciality	Women's Health
History
Founded	October 1, 1883
Links
Website	http://www.womenscollegehospital.ca/
Lists	Hospitals in Canada

Women's College Hospital, or The New Women's College Hospital is a teaching hospital in downtown Toronto. It currently functions as an independent ambulatory care hospital. The Physician-in-chief is Dr. Jim Ruderman.

Women's College Hospital maintains a focus on women's health, research in women's health, and ambulatory care. It was given the distinction of being the only 'collaborating centre' in the Western Hemisphere designated by the World Health Organization.^[1]

History

The hospital was cofounded on October 1, 1883 as Women's Medical College, by Jennis Smillie Robertson (1878-1981). ^[2] It was the first medical school in Toronto to admit women as students. The first female doctor to graduate from a Canadian medical school was Augusta Stowe-Cullen (1847-1943), who graduated from Women's College Hospital in 1883.^[3]

It moved to its current location in Toronto in 1935, and became a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto in 1961. Women's College Hospital merged with Sunnybrook Hospital and the Orthopedic and Arthritic Hospital in 1998 under the provisions of Ontario Bill 51, and became Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre. Women's College Hospital de-amalgamated in 2006 to become The New Women's College Hospital. In 2003, while still part of the erstwhile "Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre", the Women's College site housed the first ambulatory SARS clinic in Canada, (while the Sunnybrook site housed both the first in-patient SARS unit and Intensive Care Unit for SARS in Canada).

The hospital was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1995.^[4][5] A plaque was erected by Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada at the Women's College Hospital, Grenville St., Toronto.

“

Women's College Hospital Foundation Designated as the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Women's Health, Women's College Hospital is recognized as a leader in Canada and around the world for its dedication to the health of women and their families. After nearly a century of care and innovation, Women's College Hospital's focus on women's health will become a cornerstone of the newly created Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre. In keeping with the vision of its namesake, Women's College Hospital Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre and the Centre for Research in Women's Health maintain a leading edge in healthcare with innovative programs, progressive research and teaching. To do so, the Foundation seeks community involvement through voluntarism and donations from our patients, their families and friends, and from organizations with whom they are associated.

”

There was a dark period when unwed mothers were not welcome at Women's College Hospital. It was believed that unwed mothers needed to be taught a lesson and should be punished by having their children taken from them, according to Dr. Marion Hilliard ^[6], Chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Women’s College Hospital, in a Toronto Telegram article of November 1956:

“

" 'The father plays absolutely no part in this. That is part of her rehabilitation ... When she renounces her child for its own good, the unwed mother has learned a lot. She has learned an important human value. She has learned to pay the price of her misdemeanor, and this alone, if punishment is needed, is punishment enough.' " Dr Hillard echoes the beliefs of the social workers and the agencies dealing with unwed mothers, though hers have come to her privately. And she, like the other authorities, though refusing to blame the girl's home, lays the remedy right on its doorstep... 'We must go back to a primary set of values and the discipline that starts with the very small child,' says Dr. Hilliard."[7][8]

”

This laid the foundation for the Unwed Mother Punishment Policy which was actively employed from the mid 1950's to the early 1980s. Other hospitals followed this policy shortly after this announcement.

Victims of this policy filed a formal complaint to the UN when Women's College Hospital refused to acknowledge that abuse had taken place. ^[9]

See also

• Emily Stowe
• Ricky Kanee Schachter

References

1. ^ Question from Dalton McGuinty, Leader of the Opposition of Ontario, to Premier Mike Harris, 6 March 1997.
2. ^ Pound, Richard W. (2005). 'Fitzhenry and Whiteside Book of Canadian Facts and Dates'. Fitzhenry and Whiteside. 
3. ^ Pound, Richard W. (2005). 'Fitzhenry and Whiteside Book of Canadian Facts and Dates'. Fitzhenry and Whiteside. 
4. ^ Women's College Hospital, Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance of Canada
5. ^ Women's College Hospital, National Register of Historic Places
6. ^ "Women's College Hospital" retrieved on 2010-07-02.
7. ^ "Mothers not all unhappy" by Dorothy Howarth, Toronto Telegram, November 22, 1956.
8. ^ Little, Margaret Jane Hillyard "No Car, No Radio, No Liquor Permit: The Moral Regulations of Single Mothers in Ontario, 1920 to 1997, 24 December, 1998"
9. ^ UN Commission on Human Rights "UN Economic and Social Council, Violence Against Women, 14 January, 2003"

External links

• The New Women's College Hospital
• Women's College Hospital

Coordinates: 43°39′42″N 79°23′15″W / 43.661686°N 79.387497°W / 43.661686; -79.387497