A 3D rendering shows what the updated NICU at the Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert may look like once it's completed. (Submitted Photo/Victoria Hospital Foundation)

By paNOW Staff

Funding Push

Hospital foundation launches fundraiser to complete NICU project

Aug 31, 2020 | 1:02 PM

The new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert is set to be equipped and furnished thanks to a newly-launched fundraising effort from the Victoria Hospital Foundation (VHF) and the Car Guys – Mann Northway GM.

The “Little Lives-Local Love” initiative is a $2 million campaign spanning over the next 18 to 24 months, and will include the Foundation’s annual Give a Little Life Day radiothon on Power 99, XFM, and CKBI in December.

“We’re pretty excited about the fact that very soon mothers and babies will have a new space to be cared for in Prince Albert, close to home. We already have wonderful pediatricians and fantastic nurses, we just needed the right space and of course the right equipment,” Victoria Hospital Foundation CEO Sherry Buckler told paNOW.

As the new NICU nears completion, the focus now shifts to phase two of the project, which is equipping and furnishing the facility to ensure local families and newborns have the best technology available.

Currently, many families are forced to go to Saskatoon to deliver babies simply because space is limited in Prince Albert. As it sits now, the facility only has the space and equipment to handle four babies at once, despite being one of three designated pediatric centres in the province.

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Once the new NICU is built and furnished, it will grow from 357 square feet to 4,000 square feet, and will be equipped with 11 beds and the modern technology required to serve the community and the surrounding region.

“When you think about the number of babies being born in the north, it’s important to think about keeping them as close to home as possible,” Buckler explained.

Some of the equipment needed includes resuscitation equipment for newborns, warming incubators that can cool to address brain injury during delivery, infant ventilators, the newest technology in NICU monitors and mobile ultrasound, a pullout bed for parents to sleep next to their child, breast pumps and oxygen blenders.

Launching a fundraiser campaign in the midst of a global pandemic paired with an economic crisis certainly creates a challenge for the foundation, but as Buckler pointed out, it also shines a light on why it’s so important.

“Our hospital in Prince Albert has cared for many people with COVID, and our hospital has lost a couple people who lost their battle. While that was happening, we’ve still had people presenting with heart attacks, people with stroke symptoms, moms delivering premature babies, people coming to the hospital with a broken bone that needs mending. None of that has stopped,” Buckler said.

Recognizing the potential economic challenges in this climate, the foundation has allowed plenty of time to reach its goal. Buckler emphasized that the organization will not stop until the work is completed, no matter how long it takes.

The annual Give A Little Life Day radiothon will be held live from on Friday, Dec. 4 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., but it will be run differently than it has in the past.

Typically the event would be held inside the hospital, but that cannot be done this year due to the pandemic. As a result, Mann-Northway has offered to host it at the dealership, with donations being accepted safely in the drive through bays.

“We’re really excited, really grateful to have them on board as a key partner, and we just want to take the time to say thank you to the community and thank you to Mann,” Buckler said.

In phase one of the NICU project, the VHF raised $2.2 million in just six months to expand the facility.

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trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden