MARATHON– Thunder Bay Regional Health Science Foundation provides new equipment to Wilson Memorial Hospital. A Pentax Colonoscope Package was purchased for the North of Superior Healthcare group’s Regional Cancer Care Northwest’s Systemic Therapy Treatment Program.
Regional Cancer Care Northwest provides high-quality patient access care closer to home. The 13 satellite locations will receive funding for more advanced equipment, which will provide chemotherapy and cancer prevention and screening services at partnering hospitals throughout Northwestern Ontario. Now patients may not have to travel to Thunder Bay for radiation therapy and other treatment services making patient care convenient, comfortable, and economical.
“Thanks to the grant funded by the TBRHSF, we were able to purchase two new colonoscopes and a new radiance monitor for the Wilson Memorial Hospital site. This new equipment will help us perform around 200 scopes per year, and our screening program helps prevent patients from having to travel to Thunder Bay for these procedures. This is especially important as colonoscopy prep is definitely more comfortable in your own home than in a hotel room,” says Janet Gobeil, NOSH Healthcare Group chief nursing officer. “We cannot thank the Foundation enough – we rely on these grants to keep our program running.”
The existing cancer screening equipment at the Wilson Memorial site is temperamental, unreliable, and needs upgrades. With no backup monitors or scopes at the hospital and repairs becoming costly, new equipment is required to maintain patient care. The new equipment will also save time for patients and surgeons who travel three hours between Thunder Bay and Marathon.
“A grant request was submitted last year by the NOSH Healthcare Group for new equipment for their colorectal cancer screening program, and it was so important that we were able to fund this upgrade to help patients stay closer to home for their scopes. The Foundation was able to fund $43,784 to purchase the new scopes and monitor, which would not have been able to happen without our generous donors and 50/50 supporters,” says Parker Jones, board of directors chair, TBRHSF. “The Foundation has approved $198,200 in funding to Regional Cancer Care Northwest’s Systemic Therapy Treatment Program at the Wilson Memorial Hospital site in Marathon since 2009. The Foundation grants are important not only for the Hospital in Thunder Bay but for smaller regional hospitals – helping provide closer-to-home care for patients across Northwestern Ontario.”
Each year, different Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre departments submit grant proposals for the regional hospitals, which a grant committee reviews. However, the success of Thunder Bay’s 50/50 draws allowed for more grant funding in 2021 than ever before. Therefore, the new equipment was purchased, and improvements were made to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and hospitals in Marathon, Terrace Bay, Fort Frances, Dryden, Kenora and Sioux Lookout.