Foundation launches campaign to raise $225k for surgical equipment in Sackville Hospital
On today’s show, we stop in to the Sackville Memorial Hospital as the SMH foundation launches its 2024 campaign to raise $225,000 for the purchase of specialized equipment for the hospital’s day surgery program. We hear from foundation board chair Bill Evans, former patient Jaryd Morrisey, and Horizon director Christa Wheeler-Thorne, who gives an update on hospital services in Sackville.
Plus in briefs, health advice on eclipse safety and measles vaccination updates from New Brunswick’s public health officers.… Continue
Sackville hospital to double OR capacity in 2023 as part of Horizon operating room expansion plan
Note: This story has been updated with a response from the Department of Health and comments from local retired doctor, Ross Thomas.
Two operating rooms at the Sackville Memorial Hospital are set to get some TLC starting in 2023.
On Friday, Horizon Health announced a plan to invest about $6.4 million in operating rooms (ORs) at the Sackville hospital and three other community hospitals in the province. In Sackville, that means spending about $2 million to upgrade one operating room that’s currently in use, and renovate another room to make it functional again.
The overall plan is to ramp up the use of ORs in community hospitals across the province to help alleviate the surgical backlog for less complex day surgeries, which will in turn allow more complex surgeries to happen more quickly in the regional hospitals.
“These programs will not only increase the number of hip and knee replacements completed each year, but in many cases, they will also increase our capacity for orthopedic surgery, cataract surgery, endoscopy and other procedures,” says acting Horizon CEO Margaret Melanson. “Augmenting the surgical services at these community facilities will also allow our regional hospitals to complete more complex and acute cases, which is a win-win for the broader healthcare system.”
Operating rooms are part of the centralized surgical system at Horizon.… Continue