Prince George Motors (Ford) donated $25,000 to Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation to be used to support better patient outcomes in the North.
The funds will be directed to Spirit of the North’s latest capital campaign that will see a dedicated maternal operating room at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. Recognizing that UHNBC is the birthing centre for the North. The need to have a dedicated operating room has been identified as an area of greatest need. This project has a cost of $322,000.
The Prince George Motors donation will go a long way towards making a difference in the overall project.
“This is an amazing contribution to a great area of concern for surgical patients,” said Judy Neiser, CEO for Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation. “Emergency and high risk births can’t be planned, but when they arise they can affect many other areas of service in the surgical department. This is an area that has been identified by Northern Health as a need and we are doing what we can with donors to see that there is less disruption of surgical services by having one operating room reinstated and dedicated to maternal patients. It truly is a win-win for all patients.”
There are, on average, 1,154 babies delivered at UHNBC per year. Close to 20 per cent are from residents outside the immediate Prince George area. Another 20 per cent are emergency C‐sections and 60 of those are high risk, premature, or multiple births.
Currently at UHNBC in Prince George there are eight fully functional operating rooms, none that are currently dedicated to maternity. This means that too often, scheduled surgeries are postponed, or moved when the operating room has to be readied for an emergency C‐Section.
