For the
first time since its opening in December 1939, the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital,
located in Norris Point on the west coast of Newfoundland, closed its doors in
2001. Some readers of this book will be curious about life in small rural
hospitals, or perhaps about changes in the nature and organization of hospital
care in rural communities; yet others will wonder what lessons can be learned
from small community hospitals. Cottage hospitals in Newfoundland, which have
become an indelible part of its history since the 1930s, offer a rich story. The
one in Norris Point has a particularly important history which includes the
involvement and contributions of such Newfoundland notables as Nurse Myra
Bennett and Dr. Noel Murphy.
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