Ontario, Canada, with 417 beds providing secondary and tertiary medical care in Toronto. People acclaim TGH for its transplant and cardio-thoracic programs. Besides, Toronto General Hospital is the only facility offering ECLS (Extracorporeal Life Support) for cardio-pulmonary and respiratory failure in Ontario. In 2021, Newsweek Magazine ranked TGH as the fourth-best hospital among the top-ten best hospitals worldwide for three consecutive years.
TGH is one of Canada’s oldest hospitals. It first opened in 1819 when the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada planned a trust fund drive to finance the construction and maintenance of a medical facility in the Town of York, the provincial capital. The construction started in 1820, and in June 1829, the General Hospital of the Town of York begun its operations, where it served King Streets and Simcoe residents. As Toronto General, the facility expanded to Sumach and Gerrard in 1856 and then College Street in 1913. The College Street branch became the MaRS building, and Toronto General expanded along University Avenue.
In 1950, TGH used the first external heart pacemaker in open-heart surgery. And in 1922, scientists developed insulin and was first put in clinical use to treat diabetes at TGH. Also, TGH performed the world’s first successful single and double lung transplants in 1983 and 1986, respectively. In 2015, specialists performed the world’s first triple organ transplant (liver, pancreas, and lung) in Reid Wylie, a 19-year old at TGH.
Today, Toronto General Hospital is a part of UHN (University Health Network), the most extensive research and teaching hospital in Canada, associated with the University of Toronto. TGH’s emergency department treats approximately 28 065 patients every year. TGH also hosts the major transplantation services in Ontario, doing lung, heart, kidney, pancreas, liver, and small intestines transplants for patients referred from all over the country.
Toronto General Hospital is also the biggest organ transplant program in North America, performing over 500 transplants every year. Its Lung Transplant Program is the world’s largest, performing more than 150 lung transplants each year. Its Medical Surgical ICU has 24 beds, and it specializes in post-transplant care, primary lung and liver transplant. The medical facility also has a Cardio-Vascular and Coronary ICU for post-cardiac surgery patients and patients with cardiac pathologies, respectively. Toronto General Hospital teaches resident doctors, nurses, and clinicians and conducts research via the Toronto General Research Institute.
