Children’s Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is transforming how care is delivered, not just by expanding services, but by reimagining where and how that care takes place. From enhancing emergency capacity for children and families to forging new partnerships that bring world-class specialty care closer to home, Children’s Hospital is moving forward with purpose and impact.
Expanding access in the Children’s Hospital Emergency Department
In fall 2024, LHSC opened an expansion of the Children’s Hospital Emergency Department (ED), increasing capacity by 50 per cent with the goal of reducing wait times for families across the region.
With the support of Ontario’s Ministry of Health and donor funding through Children’s Health Foundation, the expansion adds eight new beds and two dedicated procedure rooms in a space designed specifically for children and families.
“We’re really proud of this new space that has provided us with the opportunity to reduce capacity pressures and move patients into care spaces faster,” says Dr. Rod Lim, Director of Paediatric Emergency Medicine. “This is a great first step towards meeting the growing demands for specialty paediatric emergency services.”
Children’s Hospital serves approximately 36,000 patients through 47,000 visits each year, and as one of the few dedicated paediatric emergency departments in Ontario, it plays a vital role in providing urgent care across a vast geographic area that covers roughly one-third of the province.
Construction of the expansion began in early 2024, and the space opened to patients last fall. This milestone reflects LHSC’s commitment to building capacity and creating better access to specialized care for children and families across our region.
A first-of-its-kind affiliation with Shriners Hospitals for Children Canada
Transforming care at Children’s Hospital at LHSC isn’t only about expanding space, it’s also about rethinking how we collaborate to ensure patients receive high-quality care closer to home.
In 2024, Children’s Hospital launched a new affiliation with Shriners Hospitals for Children Canada, a first-of-its-kind partnership that brings advanced care, research, and education in rare bone disease directly to southwestern Ontario. Through this collaboration, we opened the Shriners Rare Bone Disease Clinic at Children’s Hospital, providing patients with complex bone conditions access to specialized treatment locally.
One of the first to benefit was 14-year-old Reiko Quinlan, who has lived with a severe form of osteogenesis imperfecta, often called brittle bone disease. Reiko had been travelling to Montreal up to eight times a year for care. Now, with his treatments available just 90 minutes from home, he and his family can focus on living, not just managing appointments.
“We’ve always felt like we have a whole team behind us at Children’s Hospital and Shriners,” says his mother, Jessica. “Both hospitals have been with us every step of the way. We’re so grateful for that and are incredibly excited for all the other children like Reiko who will get to experience the best of both worlds in their care thanks to this special new affiliation.”
Partnerships like this are just one of the many ways LHSC is working to bring more specialized care options to the communities we serve.