New Year, New CVS Program
Published Wednesday, February 21, 2024
The New Year always brings me optimism, and 2024 looks one of the brightest. We capped 2023 with our most significant Christmas 50/50 win yet with a $3.89 million Grand Prize. It's the largest hospital 50/50 win ever in Ontario. As I always say, we all win with the Thunder Bay 50/50 since the proceeds allow us to Do More Faster, bringing more and better healthcare to Northwestern Ontario and the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
What makes 2024 even more exciting is that we can see the final steps toward a full Cardiovascular Surgery Program. As many of you know, this has been a long time coming, but advances in minimally invasive cardiac surgery and COVID have delayed the program's full launch.
It is finally bringing the last major healthcare program to Thunder Bay. We have Exceptional Cancer Care – most cancer treatments in Northwestern Ontario can be performed in Northwestern Ontario. We've built a network of cancer services across the region for closer-to-home care, including community-based chemotherapy. In the time since the Northern Cancer Fund's first launch, more people are living with cancer than dying from it.
Cardiac surgery is the last piece of the puzzle. Every year, hundreds of patients have to travel to southern Ontario or elsewhere for cardiac care. Our partnership with the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto has helped make services more accessible for many patients. But there's no place like home. Today, we are on the verge of having all those services right here in Thunder Bay, from diagnostics and pre-assessments to surgery, recovery, rehab, and release. Soon, only the most high-risk cases will need to go to Toronto for care, with most patients getting the care they need closer to home.
While nothing is final, there is a strong likelihood that my message next January will be about the ground breaking for the construction project for Ontario's newest cardiac surgery program right here in Thunder Bay.
Thank you to all who brought us to this point with your donations to the Our Hearts at Home Campaign and the Northern Cardiac Fund and your purchase of Thunder Bay 50/50 tickets. Together, we are bringing complete cardiovascular surgery services home.
Parker Jones