Plans for a health centre to treat sick children in northeastern Ontario passed a major hurdle Tuesday when the North East LHIN (NE LHIN) decided to support NEO Kids with a positive recommendation to the Ministry of Health.
The decision will allow Health Sciences North (HSN) to pursue its goal to treat children closer to home and to stop the tide of more than 10,000 trips a year by children and their families to southern Ontario for health care.
The NE LHIN is to be congratulated for this necessary endorsement and for continuing to work with HSN on a win/win solution to move NEO Kids forward.
It is a decision that will no doubt bring a collective sigh of relief to the health-care providers who have been saying with increased fervor that rates of serious illnesses in children are on the rise in Northern Ontario and children receive better health care outcomes when they are treated closer to home.
Moreover, the hundreds of families who prepare for the countless hours spent highway driving and the days away from work, other children and their homes, will also feel relief that NEO Kids is finally going to be put on the table at a time when the province has committed $160 billion for infrastructure for roads, hospitals, schools and transit.
Surely, the time is right now for NEO Kids.
Surely, the inequity in health care for pediatric care in the North will finally be addressed.
This is a pro-active, collaborative decision that clearly puts the needs of the North’s children first.
The benefits from establishing NEO Kids have been well documented — from recruitment and retention of health-care professionals, to the continuum of care for patients with multiple needs.
New clinical services being touted include a Late Effects Clinic for long-term follow up of cancer survivors; an Ophthalmology Clinic for pediatric patients with eye disease; a Concussion Clinic, an Adolescent Health Clinic; an Endoscopies/Gastrointestinal Clinic for patients with gastrointestinal issues with a special pediatrician to be recruited to handle this clinic and a Child Advocacy Centre, complete with a Children’s Aid Room and a multi-disciplinary approach to help complex patients.
It was recently announced that the iconic Ronald McDonald Charities will open Northern Ontario’s first Ronald McDonald House Charities Family Room at HSN for families locally and from across northeastern Ontario who need to be close to their sick children.
And this past weekend, local radio station KICX 91.7 raised thousands and thousands of dollars through its KICX for Kids Radiothon to construct the North’s first Distraction Room by expanding and renovating the existing pediatric treatment room at HSN to make it kid-friendly.
We are all waking up to the obvious need for more and better health care for our children.
The NE LHIN and HSN are to be congratulated on working together to strength the submission for NEO Kids.
We applaud the NE LHIN for their endorsement of NEO Kids and we strongly encourage the province to expedite the process so shovels are in the ground for NEO Kids before the $160 billion in infrastructure money runs out.
Rick Bartolucci is the former MPP for Sudbury.
