Current Needs
The Health Care Foundation has recently launched the Give from the Heart campaign to raise $10 million during the next two years to purchase equipment and technology for Eastern Health's Cardiac Care Program. The Cardiac Care Program is the provincial referral centre for diagnostic and interventional cardiac procedures and cardiac surgery. The demand for cardiac care services has grown steadily in recent years. New equipment is needed to offer the latest advances in technology and to meet the increased need for cardiac surgeries, procedures and diagnostic tests.
Here are a few examples of the leading-edge equipment that will be purchased through campaign funds:
- 3 Cardiac Catheterization Labs (used to perform procedures such as dye tests and balloon angioplasties)
- Electrophysiology equipment to correct irregular rhythmns of the heart, insert pacemaker implants and implantable cardiac defibrillators
- Heart Echo machines (to take ultrasound images of the heart)
- Heart-lung machines (used to keep blood and oxygen moving through the body when the heart is stopped for surgery)
- Surgical implements
- Excercise stress test equipment
- Replacement of all patient bedside cardiac monitors
- Portable cardiac patient monitoring systems
The Give from the Heart campaign will give residents of our province the gift of having the best cardiac equipment and technology available, and will assist efforts to recruit physicians to this specialty area.
