For months, frontline workers at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) have been mobilizing for the fight against COVID-19, the potentially deadly disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
As the virus circulates in our community and, with COVID-19 patients already being treated in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), PRHC has been busy preparing for a possible surge in the number of patients with COVID-19, particularly those with severe respiratory symptoms.
Lesley Heighway, PRHC Foundation President & CEO says the team at PRHC has already taken key steps to be ready to treat COVID-19 patients.
“I’m very pleased to report that after many weeks of hard work and planning, your hospital is prepared and responding,” says Heighway. “In addition to opening an on-site COVID-19 Assessment Centre, PRHC has decreased hospital occupancy to create additional inpatient space, and converted existing spaces into dedicated areas for patients with respiratory illness.”
“They’ve also increased critical care capacity by adding 27 ICU beds and ramping up critical care staff,” she adds. “And they’re working with partners at a regional and provincial level to ensure access to additional ventilators.”
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“We’re as ready as we can be right now,” says Dr. Lynn Mikula, the hospital’s Vice-President, Chief Medical Executive, and Chief of Staff. “There is a sense of calm preparedness in the building. We are feeling really ready.”
While frontline workers are prepared for what may come, an urgent need still exists for the technology and supplies required to equip, support, and maintain the extraordinary changes undertaken at PRHC in a short period of time — changes that will help the hospital’s doctors, nurses, and staff save patients’ lives while protecting their own.
That’s where the PRHC Foundation comes in. For more than 40 years, the charitable organization has been working with the community to invest in the state-of-the-art equipment and technology that PRHC’s healthcare professionals must have to deliver the very best patient care.
Heighway says that with the arrival of COVID-19, the ability to quickly anticipate the hospital’s most urgent pandemic-related priorities became paramount. Responding to an urgent request for support from PRHC partners, and a heartfelt outpouring of generosity from the community, the Foundation quickly established a COVID-19 response fund dedicated to that purpose.
“It became very clear right from the beginning of the pandemic that community and regional hospitals were going to play an essential role,” says Heighway. “While our current efforts to fund vital cardiac and cancer care investments, such as the Cath Lab reinvestment and new chemotherapy robotics, remain critical to PRHC’s ongoing efforts, we realized right away that we needed to shift gears to support these new priorities and help them respond to this new reality.”
“Ensuring PRHC’s doctors, nurses and staff have the technology and equipment they need to save lives is what we do,” she adds. “It’s our mission and it’s never been more important than it is right now.”
Heighway says that she and her team have been working closely with colleagues at the hospital to determine exactly what those equipment priorities are, and how the community can help.
“PRHC physician and staff leadership have already identified vital investments needed to equip and sustain their COVID-19 efforts,” says Heighway. “Equipment and supports like additional ventilators, laryngoscopes for emergency intubation, more ICU beds, provisions and wellness supports for staff who must stay at the hospital while treating patients, and more protective equipment and scrubs to help keep them safe.”
For its part, the Foundation will ensure that donated funds go where they are needed most.
“The relief fund is designed to ensure PRHC can respond quickly to the crisis to help save lives, and limit the spread of the infection in our community,” she adds. “Gifts of all sizes matter and are appreciated.”
The ongoing generosity of the community has already helped PRHC to grow into a world-class hospital and, now during the pandemic, it will serve as a regional support centre thanks to the Level 3 ICU that donors have helped to fund.
The most vulnerable and the most acutely ill patients from across the region — including Peterborough and Peterborough County, Lindsay and the City of Kawartha Lakes, Campbellford, Cobourg, Port Hope, all the way north to Haliburton Highlands, and all points in between — will be depending on PRHC, and on the support of donors to PRHC Foundation.
“Donors have already had a significant impact through their past support,” says Heighway. “The vast majority of emergency equipment and technology at our hospital is donor-funded. We’re in a better position to tackle this crisis today because of their generosity.”
Right now, donors have a special opportunity to double the impact of their gifts to the PRHC Foundation’s COVID-19 response fund thanks to a generous matching gift of up to $50,000 from long-time PRHC champions David and Patricia Morton. Well known in the community for their volunteer and philanthropic efforts, David and Patricia believe there’s never been a more important time to support our hospital.
“We want to encourage all who can to donate to support our brave frontline healthcare workers during this COVID-19 crisis,” says Patricia Morton. “Their courage is simply amazing as they risk their own lives to save others.”
“Our hope is that our gift will encourage others, and as a result our collective philanthropy will go twice as far to support the work of PRHC’s dedicated physicians, nurses and staff,” adds David Morton.
If you’ve already made a donation in support of PRHC’s COVID-19 response, thank you. If not, please give today if you can. Thanks to the Mortons, your gift will go twice as far to support the work of PRHC’s frontline healthcare professionals! Visit www.prhcfoundation.ca or call 705-876-5000 today.
This story was created in partnership with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation.
