‘Hey, we’re here too!’ Underfunded Scarborough hospitals need donations heading into third pandemic summer – Toronto

Walk through Centenary’s Intensive Care Unit HospitalDr. Martin Betts, Director and Medical Director of Critical Care at Scarborough Health Network (SHN), reflects on the past two years, as he considers what might be to come.

“Our job as doctors, we used to work 20 or 24 weeks a year, we did 40, 42 weeks. So in the times that we’re off, it’s not like you’re relaxing, you’re just trying to process what you’ve been through, getting a good night’s sleep. Betts said:

“I see that in my team, but I also see them going over that a little bit,” he added.

The ICU and ER have been at the center of the hospital network battle with COVID-19.

Betts said his team has been able to properly care for patients throughout the pandemic, largely thanks to generous donations.

“We could actually get a gift from a donor that would allow us to expand the ICU to another center that we currently have… So we went from having 12 spaces to 22 no. time. As you know, during the pandemic, even that is not enough to manage the volume we have. … In fact, we had ten more beds on that floor just to have enough space,” he recalls.

SHN has big plans for expansion and donations will help make that happen.

“It is really about revolutionizing care for us in the Scarborough Health Network. David Graham, Interim CEO of Scarborough Health Network said.

“While we haven’t had any master plan refreshes, we’ve been able to deliver a lot of great care across our three sites. Only in our time now have we been able to show the need and completely justify the claim for it,” he added.

This week, the SHN Foundation received its biggest corporate gift ever.

A $20 million donation from the Northpine Foundation to Love, Scarborough campaign to build what the hospital calls “Canada’s first no-wait Emergency Department” at Centenary Hospital.

Funds from Northpine will also be channeled into SHN General’s new Radiology Lounge.

“We want to make sure that our community not only has the care they need… we also want to make sure that the care we are providing meets the type of care the community needs… needed, so this $100 million fundraising campaign said Ryan Bailey, Vice President of Community Development, SHN Foundation.

He said the Love, Scarborough campaign had brought a “beautiful halo effect” to the community. He is pleased with the positive response to it.

First, Scarborough fundraising musician The Weeknd donated $500,000 to SHN to support COVID-19 relief efforts through the sale of his popular line of XO masks.

Bailey added: “Of every postcode in Scarborough, we know all but one high-risk area for COVID, so I know our hospitals are under tremendous pressure.

He pointed out that donations are important for upgrades, expansions and new programming in SHN.

“When we look at our fundraising dollar percentage, we’ll say we’re on the lower end of that,” says Graham.

On its website, the Love, Scarborough campaign notes, “Scarborough is one of Canada’s most diverse communities and deserves the same innovative technology and up-to-date amenities that other Toronto hospitals offer. grant”.

“We are a catchment area of ​​about 850,000 across three sites. The need for us was really for the inpatient facility, the new operating room, we were based on the old system of four people in one room, and we think with COVID we’ve really cleared up. those standard categories for individual rooms, restrooms, and Graham explained.

The SHN Foundation estimates its facilities receive less than one percent of donations from the Toronto hospital, even though it serves about 25 percent of the city’s population.

“Many people left in the city don’t know about us. They don’t know that we are short of capital. They didn’t know we needed support,” said Fiona Kingsley Boyer, Development Manager, SHN Foundation.

Kingsley Boyer was 44 years old and 4 months pregnant when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer that affects the lymphatic system.

“Centenary really helped me get my life back,” she said.

For now, her mission is to help give back, through her role with the SHN Foundation.

“It was really important for us to get the message out there to the rest of the city and let them know that, hey, we’re here too! We’re doing great things in our hospital and we need your support! ‘ she said enthusiastically.

Back in the ICU, Betts is cautious about sharing her thoughts and predictions about what could happen this summer and into the fall when it comes to COVID-19.

“I think if COVID has taught me anything, it’s not to look too far ahead” he say.

Betts noted that the focus right now is on caring for COVID-19 patients who have experienced severe illness and continue to recover.

“They’re going to have really long-term effects on health, and I think when I tell my colleagues in other ICUs in the province, that’s the people we continue to care for, the number of new patients relatively low, but we have a huge burden. patients who are still working through their illness even a year ago, still need ICU care,” he said.

In the emergency room, Dr. Lisa Salamon continues to view COVID-19 patients being cared for and is expected to have more in July and August.

She said the past two years have felt like “a bit of a sigh of relief” but this summer could be different.

“I think we have to be really cautious this summer, which is unfortunately different from the last two… we keep hearing people say we need to learn to live with it and I mean it. Again, we need to learn to live with this responsibly” she added.

Dr. Norman Chu, SHN’s Director of Medical and Emergency Medicine, said that whatever happens, his team is prepared.

“With the reopening of the economy, lifting of mask regulations, increased travel over the summer, we could see numbers increase in the next few months.. life goes on, we have to move on and we’ll deal with it when it comes,” he said.

For the fall, Chu said as the weather gets cooler, people go inside and the risk of transmitting any kind of infectious disease increases, so we’re ready for that. We’ve been through a lot in the past few years. So yeah, we’re ready,” he said.

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