Staff from Shoppers Drug Mart present a cheque to representatives from the UHKF
Staff from Shoppers Drug Mart present a cheque to representatives from the UHKF
Credit
Nicole Corcoran/UHKF

February 8 was a significant day for Kingston’s hospitals as our University Hospitals Kingston Foundation announced nearly $700,000 in donations from the community over the course of one afternoon.

Shoppers Drug Mart unveiled the total raised through their annual Growing Women's Health campaign which has pledged $100,000 over five years to support new labour and delivery suites as part of our Phase 2 Redevelopment project. That was followed by the announcement of a $673,000 donation from the W.J. Henderson Foundation. 

Atrial Fibrillation research

A total of $500,000, from the W.J. Henderson Foundation gift will support a novel new research study into Atrial Fibrillation. This condition is the most common type of arrhythmia – which is also known as an irregular heart rhythm. It affects approximately one in four Canadians and individuals with the condition have a three to five times greater risk of stroke than those without it.

The new study is a partnership between KHSC and Providence Care and will be led by Dr. Benedict Glover. It will look at how lifestyle modifications could improve outcomes for patients as the risk of developing atrial fibrillation increases with age and with other factors such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.

“This will be an incredible study because we now have the absolute best technology in treating atrial fibrillation using catheters, computer systems and less invasive techniques. Now we are taking a step back and saying, wait a second, maybe if we treat those underlying conditions we could prevent hospitalizations and actually maybe even cause atrial fibrillation regression in patients that already have it,” said Dr. Glover, the Head of KHSC’s Electrophysiology Program.

Glover continued, “lifestyle modification is probably the most difficult thing you can try to do in the field of medicine, but we’re up for the challenge and we’ll see what we can achieve. I think we will get some very positive results.”

“This project is one that we are very excited about because it lies in building partnerships,” said Providence Care President and CEO Cathy Szabo. “Cardiology isn’t in Providence Care’s mandate, but cardiac rehabilitation is. So we are delighted to be partnering in this research and are looking forward to the outcomes of this research and to put it into immediate practice.”

Kingston Health Sciences Centre has become a leader in the treatment of Atrial Fibrillation using new technology to support less invasive treatments such as cardiac ablations. In fact, last year KHSC became the first hospital in Canada to perform a hybrid cardiac ablation. KHSC performs between 400-500 cardiac ablation procedures each year.

Renovation of the Henderson Board Room

The remainder of the donation from the W.J Henderson Foundation is supporting the recent upgrades of the Henderson Board Room at our Hotel Dieu Hospital site. The renovations included the installation of new technology that can be used to connect us with other hospitals across the province, along with other impressive upgrades.

“This is a great enhancement in technology for KHSC as it increases our connectivity using the Henderson Board Room for videoconferencing and education,” said KHSC President and CEO Dr. David Pichora. “We’re very grateful for the W.J. Henderson Foundation in making this investment in this facility, which has been named in honour of Judge Henderson and his wife, Helen.”

The W.J. Henderson Foundation has been a strong supporter of health care in our community, including a $1 million donation to support the creation of the W.J. Henderson Centre for Patient Oriented Research which opened at our KGH site last autumn.

New labour and delivery suites

Shoppers Drug Mart announced the first gift of their ongoing five year commitment to the redevelopment of the labour and delivery suites at our KGH site as part of Phase 2 Redevelopment.

The donation of $24,663 from their Growing Women's Health campaign was the result of their most successful local campaign. The national campaign runs in September and October and has raised over 30 million dollars across Canada since 2002. All of the funds raised are donated by local stores to support women’s health initiatives in their community.

As part of Phase 2, KHSC will be constructing a new eight story tower on Stuart Street that will house new Operating Rooms, Clinical Labs, Emergency Department, Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit and Labour and Delivery suites. Work is underway through UHKF to raise the local share require to support Phase 2 Redevelopment. If you would like to learn how you can support redevelopment at KHSC, please visit: https://uhkf.ca/giving/