Circle of Life – Annual Celebration 2025

Guelph General Hospital (GGH) is proud to serve as the regional centre for vascular surgery, providing life & limb-saving procedures to a catchment area of over 1.1 million people. Established 15 years ago, the program delivers critical interventions including ruptured aneurysm repair, diabetic limb salvage & wound care, angioplasty and stenting, bypass surgeries, and stroke prevention. In 2024 alone, GGH performed 808 vascular procedures. The program is part of Critical Ontario 24/7 urgent vascular service. 

Due to its vital role, the current Vascular Surgery Suite is in urgent need of renewal, requiring major monthly repairs and operating with only four surgeons instead of the recommended five. The suite also supports other essential regional programs such as cardiology, stroke care, cardiac surgery, dialysis, and trauma. The care of vascular patients is time sensitive. Without a local regional program, patients from our community would face delayed treatment for life and limb saving surgeries 

This renewal project will modernize the suite with advanced imaging and precision software that reduces radiation exposure by 50%, improves accuracy in stent placement, and enables, faster, more efficient surgeries – allowing up to 25% more patients to be treated daily. These upgrades will help attract and retain top surgical talent, maintain GGH’s status as a Regional Program, and most importantly, save more lives. 

Supporting this vital initiative and help GGH ensure timely, high-quality vascular care for our region – when every second counts. 

Inner Circle Contribution: $800,000 over 2 years  

Presenter: Dr. Afshin Jahromi  

Guelph General Hospital (GGH) is launching a bold new initiative to address a growing challenge: physician recruitment. As Guelph is one of Ontario’s fastest growing communities, recruiting top talent is paramount to expanding services and access to meet the needs of the community. To meet this demand, we are reimagining the way we attract and retain our professional staff.   

To begin, GGH is establishing a Recruitment Innovation Fund – a strategic investment to attract and retain top physician talent across the hospital. The Fund will be available to support signing incentives, relocation expenses, and other recruitment initiatives like tours, events, attending conferences etc. It will not include salaries, incentives for physicians already practicing in the community, or expenses unrelated to establishing a practice (such as vacations or luxury items). This fund will focus on key areas of need including anesthesia, GI, and Hospital medicine.   

To further support the recruitment of the new Gastroenterologists, we are also seeking funding to support essential equipment to increase GGH’s endoscopy capacity by expanding from 3 to 4 endoscopy suites – one remaining at the main hospital site to support acute care and emergencies, and three located in the new community-based medical centre.  

This expansion is critical for improving access and reducing wait times for early cancer detection, and the diagnosis of a wide range of gastrointestinal diseases like Crohn’s and colitis. I believe that by investing in people and technology, this funding opportunity will help GGH build a resilient, high-performing clinical workforce which is better prepared meet the needs of our growing community.  

Inner Circle Contribution: $750,000 over 2 years  

Presenter: Dr. Alex Ferguson 

Construction is currently underway for the first phase of the Guelph General Hospital (GGH) medical centre at the Guelph campus of Conestoga College. Fully managed and operated by GGH, the centre is expected to open in early 2026 and will initially provide diagnostic imaging services. 

With the population in Guelph-Wellington growing at a rapid rate, the demand for healthcare has never been higher. With challenges in GGH’s physical space to accommodate the growing demand, the new centre will provide additional capacity for hospital quality care closer to home, 

An additional 15,000 square feet of space will become available at the site on Speedvale Avenue in 2026, and GGH has identified an opportunity to relocate its busy orthopedic centre from the hospital to the new centre, creating more room for specialized and acute care within the hospital while improving access to orthopedic care in the community. 

Last year, fracture clinic visits accounted for 41% of all ambulatory care visits to GGH, underscoring the growing demand for orthopedic services including follow up visits for fractures, and  hip, shoulder, or knee replacement surgeries. In this second phase, a second on-site X-ray machine will be added, with images read by GGH radiologists and shared directly with local care teams — ensuring faster diagnoses and seamless continuity of care. This project strengthens GGH’s commitment to delivering high-quality, community-based orthopedic and ambulatory care while preserving hospital resources for patients who need them most. 

Inner Circle Contribution: $800,000 over 2 years  

Presenter: Dr. Ken McKenzie