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The Impact of l'Hôpital Saint Gabriel

The Sisters' Hospital was a major benefit to the Fort McMurray community. During the community's growth from the late 1930s through to the late 1960s, Saint Gabriel's Hospital provided health care to a population without a general hospital. The health care staff was well-trained because the Grey Nuns brought in professional nuns and lay staff from eastern, urban centres. This meant that St. Gabriel's often had state-of-the-art technology and the people trained to use it.

Further, the Hospital and the nuns in it provided a number of social services that are not normally associated with hospitals. The Grey Nuns were often determined to generate employment opportunities rather than choose cheaper options that required fewer staff hours. In particular, the Hospital provided employment for young women who had few career prospects in the Canadian frontier of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. The nuns made grief and family counselling a part of their duties, and found ways of giving food and supplies to the poor.

Through both official and unofficial procedures, St. Gabriel's Hospital had an impact on the community it served until the day of its closure. By providing the necessary health care to the region's infrastructure, the hospital quite likely made Fort McMurray's growth from a frontier town into a modern city possible.

For more information about the Grey Nuns, read, "Northerners Say: 'Thanks, Sisters,'" by Agnus Sutherland s.g.m, and published by Les Oeuvres de Mère d'Youville in 1996. See also "The Bishop Who Cared: A Legacy of Leadership," written and published by Agnus Sutherland s.g.m. in 1995, and "The Place We Call Home," written by Irwin Huberman and published by the Historical Book Society of Fort McMurray in 2001.

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Girl in Examination Chair in St. Gabriel's Hospital
1939-1960
St. Gabriel's Hospital and outbuildings, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada


Credits:
Les Soeurs de la Charité de Montréal, "Soeurs Grises" (The Grey Nuns of Montreal)