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Margaret Rivers, 107 years old and the oldest resident in the at the long-term care home, is surrounded by hospital staff and community dignitaries as she cuts the ribbon at the grand opening. Photo by Tiffany Lloyd\/Kingstonist <\/p>\nMargaret Rivers, 107 years old and the oldest resident in the at the long-term care home, is surrounded by hospital staff and community dignitaries as she cuts the ribbon at the grand opening. Photo by Tiffany Lloyd\/Kingstonist <\/p>\n
The Lennox and Addington County General Hospital marked two milestones on Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2026, celebrating 60 years of serving the community while officially opening its new 128-bed long-term care home.<\/p>\n
The ceremony brought together elected officials, hospital leaders, staff, physicians, volunteers, donors, residents and community members to reflect on the hospital\u2019s history and its expanding role in providing care close to home.<\/p>\n
Board Chair Laurie French said the anniversary and ribbon-cutting represented both a celebration of the hospital\u2019s past and its future.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is a very special occasion as we celebrate six decades of caring for our community while also marking the opening of our most beautiful long-term care home,\u201d French said. \u201cThis is a project that reflects our continued commitment to meeting the healthcare needs of our community today and for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hastings-Lennox and Addington MPP Ric Bresee called the long-term care project years in the making and said expanding capacity has been a priority for the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe long-term care facilities in this province have been underserved and under capacity for an incredibly long time,\u201d Bresee said. \u201cHaving that capacity right here in Napanee, right here in Lennox and Addington County, is so very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bresee presented provincial certificates recognizing both the hospital\u2019s 60th anniversary and the opening of the long-term care home.<\/p>\n
Hospital Foundation Chair Jeff Cuthill credited decades of community support for helping expand local health care services.<\/p>\n
He highlighted the growth of the emergency department, the addition of chemotherapy and dialysis services, improvements to diagnostic imaging and the arrival of MRI services, which made the hospital the smallest community in Ontario with its own MRI at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of these milestones happened by chance,\u201d Cuthill said. \u201cThey happened because this community believed they were possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
President and CEO Mike Bell reflected on the hospital\u2019s growth since opening in 1966 and said its greatest strength has always been its people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I joined in 2024, I was just impressed out of the gates with the pride across Lennox and Addington County,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to match the pride that Lennox and Addington offers across the county.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell said recent achievements include opening MRI services, earning exemplary standing with Accreditation Canada and strengthening regional partnerships, while maintaining a focus on compassionate care.<\/p>\n
Among the ceremony\u2019s special guests was Marilyn McCullough, the hospital\u2019s first employee, who worked for the hospital association from 1964 before the facility opened.<\/p>\n
McCullough recalled the excitement surrounding construction of the original hospital and praised generations of staff, volunteers and community members who helped it grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI now look back over the 60 years to see how much the vision of a few members of the community who worked so hard to see the hospital built has evolved into a much greater service,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The celebration also included the dedication of the Serenity Space, a memorial garden created in honour of Dr. Jessica Biederman.<\/p>\n
Dr. Heather Beldman said the space, located between the hospital and the long-term care home, offers a place for staff, patients, families and visitors to reflect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a place where staff, patients, families and visitors can pause, breathe and find a moment of peace during both joyful and difficult times,\u201d Beldman said.<\/p>\n
Long-term care Medical Director Dr. Pierre Robichaud said the new home reflects the hospital\u2019s commitment to treating residents with dignity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur residents are not living in our workplace, but rather we\u2019re working in their home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Administrator Kyah Dillon said the opening marks the beginning of a new chapter centred on resident-focused care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe home represents our commitment to providing compassionate, resident-centred care in a place where people can truly feel at home,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n
The celebration concluded with French thanking generations of board members, physicians, staff, volunteers, donors and community partners before inviting dignitaries to officially open the new long-term care home with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.<\/p>\n
With files from Tiffany Lloyd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Margaret Rivers, 107 years old and the oldest resident in the at the long-term care home, is surrounded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,10906,286307,25066,43116],"class_list":["post-816204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-lennox-and-addington","tag-long-term-care","tag-napanee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}