RVH Update
Ron introduced Eric Dean as an active member of Rotary who was on the executive of the Lindsay Club and served as President and was made a PH and is nowith a Barrie club and involved in Youth Exchange at the District level. He's been the CEO of the RVH Foundation since 2010. Previously he served for 4 years at the Hospital Foundation in Ottawa where he led a 35 million capital campaign, 3 years at the Canadian Blood Service and several years at the Lindsay hospital. He is a member of several professional associations.
Eric said they have been making a lot of progress at the hospital and he wanted to bring the Club, as major supporters, up to speed on what's happening. The Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre is now receiving 3,000 new cases a year and the rate is expected to increase as the population ages and as diagnostics continue to improve. Over 7 years the 13 Rotary Clubs in the area have contributed 1.5 million, 4 Chairs of the Board and 5 Chairs of the Foundation have been Rotarians and there has been ongoing Club and individual support. Total cost was 430 million, including 69 million for equipment, all of which was funded locally. The new facility has 101 more beds and has space shelled in for future expansions which will cut costs later. Two new operating theatres will be operating by fall and with them will come more specialists. The hospital has hired 600 new people and another 1,200 have moved into new positions.
Rotary House is functioning, linked to the hospital by a tunnel, and provides family medicine and there is a teaching unit and a clinic. It houses mostly radiation patients that are receiving daily treatments and has accommodated patients from all over, though the most have come from Huntsville because it's the furthest away. The building also houses administration functions so the more expensive hospital space can be used for hospital functions. 9 students a year take placements there and on average so far, about 5 of them stay.
Aug. 16 will be Rotary House's first anniversary and it has had 519 guests overnight, including two from Midland for 5 nights and they expect it will be busier in the winter when the driving becomes harder. 12 people from Huntsville have stayed a total of 222 nights. The facility reduces stress in patients and family members by 90% which encourages healing. As most treatments only last 15 minutes and the drive can take up to two hours, having a place to stay is obviously huge for people.
Eric took us on a photo tour which included a shot out the window of the Tim Horton's and Gilda's Club which Midland Rotary also supported. Gilda's offers more group and psychological support.
The Cancer Centre itself has received over 72,000 visits which is more than anticipated but less than they can handle. Having the Centre in Barrie has saved people 5,000 trips to Toronto for a million kilometres and 15,000 hours saved.
Eric said it was great the Club has supported the RVH but went on to say that he knew it was a big help to GBGH as well and that that is very important. The better equiped the local hospital is, the better care they can provide which reduces the burden on the Regional one and then a well equipped Regional hospital reduces the load on the City ones, so he encouraged us to continue to assist locally.
The RVH is working on establishing and Interventional Cardiology centre as well. Heart patients now are sent to Newmarket. And they would like to have a Child and Youth Mental Health service because Waypoint has no inpatient option for younger people and they have to go to Southlake but it is always full son they have to make trips to the city twice a week. With an inpatient program they can recruit a psychologist and team to develop an outpatient service locally. And a proposal is being pursued for a pan regional gynecological cancer surgery centre. The space and equipment are in place.
Terri thanked Eric for coming and presented him with his polio plus certificate.