Archief paa-6612 - Charles Camsell Hospital fonds

The original building that housed the Charles Camsell Hospital was built around 1913 in Edmonton, Alberta. The building was used as a Jesuit College for boys until 1942 at which time it was taken over by the American Army. The Americans added a number of detached frame buildings to the property, and the entire facility was used as a holding and forwarding centre for American Army personnel and civilian engineers employed to construct the Alaska Highway. The highway was completed in 1944 and the Americans left the site.<br>;The property and the equipment were then sold to the Government of Canada, and the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps used it to set up the Edmonton Military Hospital. At this time several detached buildings were connected to the main building by a system of corridors.<br>;In the summer of 1945 Dr. W. Lynn Falconer, assistant to the Acting Superintendent of Medical Services for Indian Affairs in Ottawa, was sent to Edmonton to inspect the facility. The purpose of this inspection was to determine whether or not the site could be converted to a tuberculosis hospital to serve the Inuit and other First Nations groups in Alberta, the Yukon Territory, and parts of the Northwest Territories. The site was deemed suitable for conversion to a tuberculosis hospital and the first patients were admitted shortly before Christmas of 1945.<br>;For several months, the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and Indian Health Services ran the hospital jointly. Early in 1946 the hospital was named after Dr. Charles Camsell, one-time geologist and Deputy Minister of Mines and Resources from 1920 to 1946. Transfer of the land and buildings from the Department of Defence to the Department of National Health and Welfare officially took place on June 1, 1946, and the Charles Camsell Hospital officially opened on August 26, 1946. The Charles Camsell Hospital ran out of the former Jesuit College building for several years. In 1964 the Federal Government approved the building of a new facility, and by 1967 the new building was complete. On July 11, 1967 equipment, staff, and patients were moved into the new building and the old Jesuit College building was demolished.<br>;During the 1970s the function of the Charles Camsell Hospital began to change. There was no longer a need for a tuberculosis hospital in the area, so the Charles Camsell became a general treatment hospital. It served the general population until October 30, 1992 when it merged with the Royal Alexandra Hospital. The Charles Camsell Hospital was officially de-established in 1993.<br>