The Amasa Wood Hospital, founded in 1891, was the first predecessor to the present St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital. After the First World War, the communities of Elgin County and St. Thomas endeavoured to build a new facility in memory of those who had served during that conflict. Consequently, municipal and private efforts resulted in the construction of the new Memorial Hospital in 1923-4.   

After the Second World War, overcrowding became a significant problem. In order to address this, plans were developed to expand the hospital. In 1947, the provincial government agreed to fund certain hospital capital construction projects; consequently, the Board decided to build an entirely new facility, to be known as the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital. This institution opened on May 11, 1954. The previously existing Memorial Hospital continued to operate as a chronic care unit of the new institution; further, the Memorial Hospital Trust was transferred to the authority of the new Hospital Board in 1957.

Overcrowding was not just a problem within the Hospital's wards, but within the nurses' school as well. By the 1950s, the two buildings which had been used as residences were no longer sufficient to house the student nurses. As a result, the Board decided to modernize the whole facility and, in 1960, opened the Dr. J.W. Snell School of Nursing.

The implementation of the Ontario Hospital Services Insurance Plan in the late 1950s increased population pressures on hospitals across the province and St. Thomas was no exception to this rule. As a result, expansion plans had to be drawn up again. In 1961, St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital established a 10 year plan for enlarging and updating its facilities. Construction began in 1964.  By 1966 a new paediatric wing, emergency department, radiology, physiotherapy and male surgery wing were added giving a total of 301 beds in the active unit, and in 1970 our Cardiac Unit opened.

More specialized care combined with the persistent inflation of the 1970s, led to escalating costs and chronic shortage of resources.  The 1980s brought development of an ICU/CCU progressive care area with a bed capacity of thirteen, and the operating rooms were renovated, bringing a total of operating rooms to six, plus one recovery room.

Major construction again took place in 1990, providing new space for Materiels Management (including Central Stores and Central Supply), Rehabilitation Services and Long Term Care beds in the Continuing Care Centre. Patients were transferred to the new CCC from the old Memorial Hospital, which was then closed. Improvements in services continued through the 1990s, with advances in information technology and the addition of a CT Scanner, Bone Mineral Densitometer, Sleep Lab, and Mammography Suit, all helping to make the hospital a centre of diagnostic excellence for Elgin County.

The Hospital looks to the future with a building renewal project to update the facility to meet the changing health care needs of our growing community. When approved by the Ministry of Health and Long term Care, this project will include renovations and expansion to the Emergency Department, construction of an Ambulatory Care area, construction of a new Surgical Suite and the addition of a Schedule One Mental Health unit.