South Niagara Hospital on track amid local urgent care concerns
July 20, 2026 at 3:27 AM
Niagara Health says construction of the South Niagara Hospital remains on time and on budget, with the Niagara Falls site now three years past its groundbreaking.
According to Niagara Health, July 18 marked three years since construction began on the hospital at Montrose and Biggar roads.
The hospital is expected to open in 2028 and become part of Niagara Health’s three-site model, along with the Marotta Family Hospital in St. Catharines and Welland Hospital.
Construction of the new South Niagara Hospital began July 18, 2023. Credit: Niagara HealthThe project has direct implications for Fort Erie, where Niagara Health plans to close the Douglas Memorial urgent care centre when the South Niagara Hospital opens.
The local urgent care centre is currently open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., after Niagara Health cut 24-hour urgent care in Fort Erie and Port Colborne three years ago.
The new 1.3-million-square-foot hospital will offer emergency, critical and complex care, diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical services.
Niagara Health says the building has reached its full height, with the top-level mechanical penthouse enclosed and major mechanical equipment in place. The building is expected to be watertight by the end of the summer, with precast panels, curtain wall, windows and roofing in place.
The final two tower cranes have been removed from the site, and interior work is underway on every floor.
Niagara Health says more than 2.6 million of the anticipated four million labour hours needed to build the hospital have been completed, with more than 1,200 skilled workers on site each day.
The new hospital is expected to include private patient rooms, expanded imaging and specialized services, an Indigenous healing space and garden, and a full emergency department.
In Fort Erie, the hospital project has been tied to renewed calls for local urgent care.
About 40 people gathered outside Douglas Memorial on July 5, exactly three years after Niagara Health reduced urgent care hours at the Bertie Street site.
The rally was organized by Fort Erie Healthcare SOS, the Niagara Health Coalition and the Port Colborne Health Coalition, with speakers calling for 24-hour urgent care to be restored and maintained locally.
Fort Erie Healthcare SOS began a series of roadside protests in May to keep public attention on the planned closure of the Douglas Memorial urgent care centre.
The town has hired consultants to study a possible health-care hub at the Douglas Memorial site, with continued urgent care and up to 70 alternate level of care beds among the concepts being explored.
Niagara Health says the South Niagara Hospital is expected to open in summer 2028.
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About The Author
Brent Jones
Program director, lead editor, and host, Fort Erie Radio; Realtor, eXp Realty; family man; lives in Ridgeway; proud to call the Town of Fort Erie home.
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