Another Toronto hospital changes its name

As another Toronto hospital changes its name, you have to stop and think where all this is leading.

Bridgepoint Hospital, built in 2013 and now part of the Sinai Health hospital system, is described as "Toronto's pre-eminent complex care and rehabilitation hospital". It's a beautiful facility, partly, I suppose because it is so new, and much less pokey than most of the city's older hospitals.

Then, this year, Jay and Barbara Hennick gave a "transformational" $36 million gift, which is described as "unrestricted". It's certainly a huge and inspiring philanthropic gift, and kudos to the Hennicks for such a generous donation.

Except that clearly it wasn't unrestricted, as now the hospital has completely changed its name to Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital. Setting aside the question of how many millions it will cost to change all the signage, all the stationery, all the online references and websites, and everything else that will now need to be changed, I just can't get my head around why a thoughtful and philanthropic (and clearly very rich) donor would insist on such a name change. 

I had exactly the same reaction when Toronto East General Hospital changed its name to Michael Garron Hospital a few years ago. Is it just vanity that would lead someone to insist on such a name change  sure, a hankering to see one's name up in lights? Sure, rename a wing or something, put up a plaque (or many plaques), but it seems pretty gauche to me to require the whole hospital to change its name.

I've made many charitable donations over the years, not of course on the level of $36 million, but I can't imagine the kind of ostentation needed to have one's name permanently emblazoned on the object of one's philanthropy. I don't mean that the donation should be completely anonymous: make it as public as possible pour encourager les autres. Praise the guys to the heavens. Just maybe don't rename the hospital. After all, over three-quarters of the hospital's financing still comes from the Ministry of Health, i.e. us taxpayers.