DAN CEARNS, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, for The Standard
BROCK: The Port Perry Hospital Foundation hopes Brock Township will support their ‘Here for You’ campaign.
At a meeting on Monday, June 14th, the hospital foundation’s CEO, Rachel Agnoluzzi and board member Don Gordon appeared before council to inform them about the campaign and to ask for a funding commitment from the township.
The campaign has a goal of raising $4 million to bring a CT scanner and other equipment to the Port Perry Hospital.
Mr. Gordon informed the councillors Lakeridge Health Port Perry hospital was utilized by 1,340 residents of Brock Township in 2019.
“It means just over 11 percent of Brock residents were patients at Port Perry Hospital in 2019,” he explained.
Mr. Gordon noted, the current situation of sending patients to other hospitals for CT scans is not ideal.
“It does not meet the standard of care the North Durham community needs and deserves,” he stated.
Ms. Agnoluzzi explained why the campaign includes fundraising for equipment other than the CT scanner.
“It’s that balance between this new technology being right at our fingertips and not losing other technologies [which] are so important to healthcare.”
The foundation hopes to bring the scanner to the Port Perry hospital before the end of 2022.
Ward 2 Councillor Claire Doble questioned what the timeline would be for the installation of the CT scanner.
“There’s quite a process of both determining the right machine, at the same time as the licensing is happening at the Ministry of Health,” Ms. Agnoluzzi responded. “Ideally, it would be by early Fall of next year, but it could be as late as December of 2022.”
Council later voted to refer the request to the township’s 2022 municipal budget process. Earlier this month, Scugog Township pledged $200,000 over four years towards the campaign.