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15 | Thursday, May 1, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Halton.ca 311 Keeping you safe and healthy Halton's Physician Appreciation Week (April 28 to May 2) is the perfect time to thank our doctors for all they do to keep us healthy. During this week, Halton Region and local hospitals recognize physicians for their contributions to our community. Now in its 11th year, Physician Appreciation Week in Halton was originally established as part of the Halton Physician Recruitment program, supporting our commitment towards achieving the best possible health and wellbeing for all. For more than a decade, Halton Region's Physician Recruitment program has promoted Halton as a location of choice to doctors deciding where to practise. With more than 200 new family doctors making Halton home to their practice since 2003, we're well on our way to meeting the goal of a family doctor for every Halton resident. Thank you to all of Halton's dedicated physicians who work tirelessly year round, making a difference in every life they touch. Thanks to our physicians, Halton is a safe and healthy community, and a great place to live, work, raise a family and retire. Gary Carr, Regional Chair Update: New Oakville Hospital It's certainly hard to miss at the corner of Third Line and Dundas Street, where the 1.6 million square foot New Oakville Hospital is being constructed to replace the existing Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. Built to meet the needs of Oakville's growing population the new hospital will have capacity for 457 inpatient beds with built space and flexibility to grow to 602 beds in the future. Some of the most exciting features of the new facility include 80 per cent single-patient rooms, new and expanded hospital programs including cancer care, services for all developmental stages of life, as well as a modern design that supports family involvement in care delivery. Eighty per cent of the New Oakville Hospital's beds will be located in single-patient rooms. Elements of the room include a full washroom with shower, a family zone with a pull-out couch so that a family member may remain overnight, lighting and temperature controls, and entertainment systems. Not only do single-patient rooms increase patient privacy, studies also suggest that having one patient per room helps with reduced infection rates, quicker patient recovery rates, increased patient safety and increased patient satisfaction. Construction of the new hospital began in August 2011 and is on-track to reach substantial completion at the end of July 2015 with a scheduled opening date of December 2015. Thanking doctors for keeping Halton healthy Committing to future family doctors through McMaster partnership Halton's Physician Recruitment program also continues to provide support to the Halton McMaster Family Health Centre in Burlington. The Family Health Centre is part of the 2009 Halton McMaster partnership which saw Halton Region and the City of Burlington provide ten-year funding to McMaster University to help establish a variety of programs in the Region. In June 2013, the first group of Halton McMaster Family Health Centre family medicine residents completed their training and from those five residents, three are now establishing practices in Halton. Currently, eight first-year residents and six second-year residents are at the Burlington-based Family Health Centre site and Halton is excited to work with them as they graduate to establish practices in the Region. Looking for a family doctor? We've found some! Halton.ca/ newphysicians