Is There a DOCTOR in the HOUSE

Hats off to our healthcare workers. Throughout the pandemic, we relied on our doctors and nurses like never before. They served our community with tenacity and true grit. Thank You. Healthcare in the Pontiac has not always been so accessible. In fact, at the turn of the century, healthcare relied on a call to the fabled country doctor or horse and buggy doctor, who would pay a house call to the stricken patients and labouring mothers.

It was not until around 1920 that centralized care came to town when Dr. C.F.C Powels arrived in Shawville and began to take the injured and the sick into his home for treatment Dr. Powels performed surgeries, delivered babies and cared for the sick until 1935.

That year, a hospital of sorts was established at Mrs. Hodgins Nursing Home, 269 Main Street. The trendy Dubeautique is there today. In those days there was no indoor plumbing. Bedpans had to be carried outdoors to be emptied in the outhouse. Laundry was hung out on the line to dry. The nurses made only $4.00 per day.

It was not long before the hospital had to expand. People donated food and money. Doctors and nurses worked double time to open a 16-bed hospital on the corner of Railroad and Victoria Streets.

The facility was far from the modern medical practice we know today. It is said that Dr. Powels created a suction system for the operating room that consisted of hosing that was connected to the manifold intake of a car running outside.
There was indoor plumbing at this new location which eased the workload for the nursing staff.

The Pontiac Community Hospital as we know it today Opened on October 26, 1948. At the time, the new hospital was considered one of the best equipped facilities in the area and was able to accommodate over 50 patients.

These days, the Pontiac Community Hospital, so named in 1982, serves nearly 25,000 people every year. It has 38 acute care beds and two operating rooms. Between April 2018 and March 2019, 953 surgical procedures were performed at the Pontiac Community Hospital. Healthcare in Shawville has come a long way.