Hospital Choices?

Thanks Pat - that would certainly be a lot easier than having to contact each hospital myself. If I decide to go to Toronto, then I guess it doesn't matter to me which of the hospitals I go to as I assume that they are all excellent facilities. That's good to know about the shorter wait times at HRRH.

Deb

I had all my appts at TWH and my surgery was at Toronto East General, that is where my surgeon is out of I am VERY happy with TWH and my surgeon :D
I would think that is their job to send you to the appropriate place to have your surgery I hope you don't have to figure all that out on your own

Good luck on your journey :D

Thanks, Leanne, for the recommendation for both the hospital and the surgeon you had.  I sure hope that you're right and that they send me automatically to the hospital with the shortest wait time.

Deb

I like you am intimidated by Toronto being a small town gal but found Toronto Western easy to get to.  I flew in and the airport is right down the road from TWH.  In between the two is a super 8 that will give you a compassionate rate of $79.00 a night in Chinatown with a letter from the hospital.

Yes, I guess that was nice for you to find that the hospital was so easy to find from the airport. We'll be driving and I'll do a MapQuest once I know where I'm going. Thanks for the tip about the "compassionate" rate. That's definitely worth looking into.

Deb

The site:
www.ontariobariatricnetwork.ca
is awesome with information. Bookmark it for sure :)

Dawn

Thanks for that link, Dawn - it looks like a great site! I just looked at it briefly but it seems like there's a lot of good information in there. I've bookmarked it and will likely take a closer look tomorrow.

Deb

Humber River Regional Hospital is a pretty grim hospital (very old, rundown, underfunded).  But my surgeon (Dr. Starr) was great and I had almost no wait at all by the time I was done my appointments.  I was referred directly to Dr Starr and that worked great for me, but it was just before the Registry system started so I don't know whether you can still do that.

Another west-end Toronto hospital that I don't think anyone has mentioned is St. Joseph's Health Centre.  So with HRRH, St. Joe's, St. Michael's, Toronto Western and Toronto East General, you've got the full list of Toronto hospitals doing WLS. 

Good luck Deb!

Read this and wondered if you had been at a different Humber - Finch. Sure it's not a hotel with an atrium filled with palm trees, but it is clean. There are bathrooms in each room. As a nurse, I've been in a lot of hospitals. There are many that are far, far worse. The rooms all have large windows, the hallways are wide.
It was built in the 1960-70's, I know because I grew up in the area.

Hi Louise - you're right - I can't complain about the care I got there, and shouldn't scare anybody off.