A new Oshawa health sciences facility is planned for the former Oshawa Clinic property downtown, with the City committing $20 million to help establish a home for Queen’s University medical education programmes.
The City announced the collaboration on November 10. The proposed location is 111–117 King Street East, a property with a long health-care history and convenient access to Lakeridge Health Oshawa, transit and downtown services.
The announcement is a planning milestone, not the opening of a new clinic. Queen’s will undertake a multi-year planning and construction process that includes securing funding. The City’s release does not provide an opening date or a final construction schedule.
Training family physicians in Durham
The facility is intended to house some of the university’s health sciences programmes based in Durham Region, including the Queen’s–Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine programme and Family Medicine residency programmes. The City says the site could also create opportunities for future expansion of medical and other education programmes.
Queen’s has had a presence across Durham for more than a decade, with Lakeridge Health Oshawa serving as a major teaching site. The family medicine-focused MD programme began in 2023 and admits 20 new medical students each year. By September 2026, it had grown to 80 learners, according to the municipal announcement.
The local need is substantial. The City estimates that approximately 17,000 Oshawa residents — about one in 12 — are not attached to a family physician. Its release also says more than 1,500 babies born in Durham each year leave hospital without a primary care physician, while approximately 27 per cent of the region’s family physicians are over 60.
Those figures explain the emphasis on training, but the announcement does not promise an immediate number of new practising doctors or patient appointments. Students and residents are distinct from physicians establishing permanent practices.
How the municipal investment works
The $20-million City investment covers acquisition and donation of the King Street East property, including the northern portion of its parking lot, as well as building intelligence reports and interior demolition costs. It should not be read as the total construction budget for the university facility.
Oshawa says the investment will be financed through a new Health Sciences Reserve. Annual operating budget contributions of $1 million over 20 years are to replenish the reserve beginning in 2027. The estimated tax levy impact is 0.51 per cent, according to the release.
The former clinic began serving patients in 1927 and was once Canada’s largest medical clinic, the City says. Reusing the property for education would continue its connection to health care while placing learners near an existing hospital teaching site.
Queen’s is to provide the City with updates as the Oshawa health sciences facility advances. For residents following the proposal, the next steps are the university’s funding, planning and construction work; this announcement does not establish a new walk-in service or registration process for patients.
Sources
Featured image: original conceptual editorial illustration, not documentary photography.
