Top 4 Reasons Donors Keep Hospital Care Local
Having a local hospital allows everyone to be safe at work or play in our Northern environment. Hospital services allow elderly residents to age in place. Without the local hospital, residents would travel 100s of kilometres for the basics of care. Local hospital care means lives are saved in an emergency. Therefore, it’s impossible to picture Muskoka/Georgian Bay without the West Parry Sound Health Centre.
1. Government Funding Doesn’t Buy New or Replacement Equipment
Many Canadians have long believed that hospitals are fully funded by government. This is simply not true. At the West Parry Sound Health Centre, Donors have bought all major equipment since 2010. Without Donor support, care would be compromised. Our Donors come from both the seasonal and fulltime residential communities. It’s remarkable what they give to ensure our medical teams have the best in technology and equipment.
2. It’s Good For Your Health
Imagine yourself in an accident. 911 is called. Dispatch Service for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) & Fire is housed in and operated by the West Parry Sound Health Centre. A paramedic team is mobilized.
- The ambulance (funded by governments – 50 % municipal & 50% provincial) arrives, secures you, then with sirens screaming races you to the West Parry Sound Health Centre;
- You need a CT scan (Donors first bought our $1.5 million machine in 2005 and Donors are now replacing the aging machine with a new $1.4 million machine in December 2019);
- Because of our new $1.1 million Picture Archiving System (bought by Donors), the Health Centre has radiologists remotely reading CT scan reports 24/7 and the radiologist notices a problem in your femur;
- The doctors are monitoring you in the Trauma Room (Donors bought the Patient Monitoring System for ER and ICU in 2014 when the old one crashed and couldn’t be rebooted);
- You begin to shiver, and the ER staff bring you another warm blanket from the $10,000 blanket warmer that Donors recently bought;
- The radiologist report that the CT scan reveals your damaged femur needs surgical intervention;
- You are taken to OR (Donors bought the 3 anesthetic machines in 2014 and $225,000 worth of surgical equipment in 2015);
- After the operation, you are hospitalized for a few days (our Auxiliary replaced your bed mattress in 2012 through money raised in the coffee shop and boutique operations that their volunteers manage);
- Your meds packaged expressly for you stem from our 2016 $1.1 million Pharmacy upgrade funded by Donors;
- You look forward to the real meals served at dinner time (the Auxiliary recently replaced the $40,000 dish washer used to keep your cutlery sterile);
- After a few days you are moving about again and therapists take you to Rehab (Donors bought most of the equipment in Rehab through the annual cardiac Georgian Bay Walk, Run, Pole);
- Finally, you are ready to go home, and a staff person pushes you in a wheel chair to the front door. You notice a sign on the side of the wheel chair says: “Bought by Staff”.
When 911 was first called, you didn’t give equipment a second thought. We are very thankful our Donors do! Donations to the Foundation ensures our medical teams have the equipment needed to care for you. Donors guarantee local hospital care. No other local donation has such impact.
3. Keeps Hospital Care Local
Without the money you donate to the Foundation, our Health Centre would not have the top notch technologies needed to care for absolutely every patient that comes through our doors. Before Donors bought our measuring machines for eyes, cataract patients travelled to Barrie for a 10 minute measurement.
4. Your Donation Really Counts
Donations to the Foundation have a huge impact at our hospital. With a small permanent population and average annual wage of $34,000 amongst our permanent population, every loonie is hard earned. Every loonie donated is nothing short of a miracle! That makes our Health Centre a miracle of your creation. For the health of everyone in the community, please keep supporting the miracle!
If you’d like to contribute to our local hospital, please donate here: wpshcf.com/donation/#individual
6 Albert Street, Parry Sound, Ontario, P2A 3A4
Phone: 705.746.4540 ext 3348
Toll Free: 1.888.262.0436
Fax: 705-773-4059
Website: www.wpshcf.com