Vic Fedeli came to the North Bay Regional Health Centre with an open cheque book as he announced a provincial government investment of $3.6 million in funding for the area hospital with hopes it will help reduce wait times, improve safety, increase services and address the increase of hospital operating costs.
Nipissing's MPP believes the NBRHC is a bedrock of the community.
"Our government will continue to make investments in healthcare, so everyone can access quality care that is close to home," he said.
Fedeli noted the funding is broken into four different areas.
- $2,784,000 for Mental Health Supports
- $389,000 to Surgical Recovery initiatives
- $327,500 for MRI/CT Operation Funding
- $150,000 EHS Base Funding increase
"Some of it is one-time funding, some of it is new base funding," explained Fedeli.
"A lot of it is going towards mental health; welcomed money here in the hospital. It is all part of the new continuum of care package. You can see that there are expanded MRIs, expanded CAT Scans along with cataract, knee and hip surgeries."
Heinrich says the funding is allowing them to hire more CT Scan and MRI technicians which will help bring down already provincially low wait times.
"They are in place already and that increases our capacity," said Heinrich.
"We can actually grow our capacity much larger for diagnostics by simply extending our hours so we are continuing to work with Ontario Health to look at our overall funding for CT and MRI, and we will be pushing to expand that as we require to serve our community."
The funding to support mental health issues at the hospital includes money for Forensic Hospital Security Enhancement.
"This supports initiatives aimed at improving staff/patient safety, including short-term staffing, training, software, and equipment designed to enhance the safety and security of forensic units," the release stated.
The surgical recovery funding is aimed at increasing surgical output and reducing system wait times.
The EHS base funding will assist in operating costs for the North Bay Central Ambulance Communications Centre.
