By Angela Hill

Fundraiser to support hospital operating rooms

Dec 2, 2010 | 5:41 AM

Aging equipment needs replacement in Victoria Hospital’s operating rooms.

The 5th Annual Give a Little Life Day, 12-hour radioathon is looking to raise the funds required to replace it.

“Some of the equipment is over 40 years old and its failing. It’s failing because it’s old but it’s also failing because it is used way more frequently than it was designed to. It’s a very busy (operating room),” said Rob Dalziel, executive director of the Victoria Hospital Foundation.

The hospital is among the busiest in the province for surgeries, said Dr. Randy Friesen.

“We have three rooms that are going regularly scheduled, every working day and on top of that we have the busiest operating room in the province in terms of emergency and (after-hours) work,” said the surgeon.

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“I can tell you (that) in the last year that statistics were kept we did more gall bladder surgeries laparoscopically than any of the Saskatoon hospitals.”

Along with new operating room lights, which are older than 40-years, the hospital foundation is looking to replace laparoscopy equipment, a surgical tourniquet and a dermatome, which is used for skin grafts.

“As the pace of that surgery has accelerated, our equipment has not kept up,” Friesen said.

“I can tell you in the operating room (new equipment) is going to make a difference every day.”

A lot of this equipment is what makes a surgery easier on the patient. If a surgeon only needs to make a small incision for laparoscopic surgery it means faster recovery, less pain and fewer complications, said Friesen.

Along with better patient care, new and functioning equipment means better staff morale. With good tools doctors and nurses are more likely to stay, instead of moving on to larger centres, said Friesen.

“Our nurses feel very frustrated when they hand us a piece of equipment in the operating room knowing that it’s not going to function the way it was designed to function. They feel badly, but they say it’s all I’ve got,” he said.

The goal is to raise more than $400,000.

“When the foundation helps us out we can move from, yeah, we are getting it done to we are doing it well,” Friesen said.

ahill@panow.com

Sidebar:

Canadian Tire got the fundraising ball rolling.
Owner Malcolm Jenkins says they will match the first $50,000 raised.
Every person who makes a donation, will receive tickets to the Broadway North show “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” he said. The show starts Friday night at the EA Rawlinson Centre.