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Annual meeting sees HSN officials pressuring for expansion

Health Sciences North officials kept the pressure on during Wednesday’s annual general meeting for the province to fund a major capital expansion of the hospital to help bring it up to snuff after several years of operating in a building they say was built too small
HSN summer night 1
Health Sciences North.

Highlighting both its successes and shortcomings, Health Sciences North officials spent part of Wednesday’s annual general meeting reiterating their need for a significant capital expansion.

As has already been well-established, Health Sciences North was built far too small – a point exacerbated throughout these past couple of years under COVID-19 pandemic conditions.

Between verbal presentations and a video dedicated to the topic, this assertion was firmly established alongside the idea HSN requires significant capital investment to help resolve matters.

It was 25 years ago that three Sudbury hospitals amalgamated to form what is now known as Health Sciences North, said Mark Hartman, senior vice-president of Patient Experience and Digital Transformation for HSN. 

“This was part of the provincial health-care restructuring program at that time,” he said, adding that various other services amalgamated into the organization along the way as part of an academic science centre with its own research institute.

“As we celebrate many milestones and clinical advancements that have happened … in the past 25 years, we also recognize that there are significant challenges ahead of us.”

Although some of these challenges are felt across the health-care system in Ontario, some are unique to HSN, such as the fact “our one-site hospital was built too small, and that’s why we operate from 14 sites across Greater Sudbury.” 

“Our teams continue to work in overcrowded and stressful conditions,” he added. “We’re now working hard on solutions to address those challenges while our front-line teams continue to provide high-quality health-care services every day.”

Although a 600-bed regional hospital was approved for Sudbury in 1996, a scaled-back version was eventually ordered with a capacity of 441.

The province’s commitment to more than $40 billion in health infrastructure across the province over the next 10 years “to create more capacity and address long-standing bed shortages” is promising, president and CEO Dominic Giroux said, noting that this 2022 budget pledge is $10 billion greater than that made a year previous.

“We look forward to advancing these conversations with the Ministry of Health in the coming months to secure our stage-two planning grant.”

A $500,000 stage-one planning grant in 2018 was followed by a request of $5 million the following year for the second of a five-stage capital planning and approval process for phase one of their capital redevelopment, which has been supported by Ontario Health but has yet to be granted.

During this year’s provincial election, the Ontario NDP pledged to fund this $5 million as part of a 12-point plan to target ‘hallway medicine’ at the hospital. However, Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford retained the majority of power in the June 2 election.

This plea for a significant capital overhaul was also shared via a handful of interviews presented in a video during Wednesday’s meeting, including one with pediatrician Dr. Sean Murray, who noted that young people are in some cases being made to travel long distances to receive the care they need.

“We’re not asking for more, we’re asking for the same benefits as children in other areas of the province,” he said, adding that capacity within the walls of Health Sciences North is too small. 

In the video, Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare said that “It’s a disaster on the roads in the winter time,” and urged for partnerships to get the capital project built. 

“We need the government here, they need to help us.”

It’s not all doom and gloom, Girioux highlighted during his presentation, noting that HSN is currently performing 91 per cent of pre-pandemic surgical activity, which is greater than the 85-per-cent provincial average and the 75 per cent recorded at other northern hospitals.

HSN ranks better than the Ontario average on 13 of 19 key indicators tracked by the Canadian Institute for Health Information related to access, person-centredness, appropriateness, effectiveness of care, safety and efficiency. 

Of surgeries performed at HSN, 59 per cent are within provincial target wait times, which compares to 48 per cent provincially. The current surgical waitlist is 5,069 patients, which is a drop from the peak of 5,370 recorded on May 26 and still greater than the pre-pandemic average of 3,400 recorded between 2011 and 2019.

“There’s always room for improvement,” Giroux clarified, noting that patient surveys slipped this past year and CT and MRI wait times are greater than the provincial average. 

As of April, Ontario Health noted that Priority 4 patients waited an average of 75 days for a CT scan at HSN. The target time is 28 days and the provincial average is 50 days. 

More serious Priority 3 patients were scanned within 25 days at HSN, which compares to 17 days provincially and a target time of 10 days, while Priority 2 patients waited an average of one day, which is on par with the provincial average and lower than the two-day target time. Emergency (Priority 1) patients are seen immediately.

MRI wait times for adults also exceeded the provincial averages, including 138 days for Priority 4 cases at HSN (68 days provincially, target time of 28 days), 24 days for Priority 3 cases (19 days provincially, target time of 10 days) and four days for Priority 2 cases (provincial and target time are two days). 

KPMG expressed a “clean” audit opinion of HSN’s finances, which included a $1.9-million surplus in hospital operations for the latest fiscal year which ended on March 31 and marks the fourth year they have recorded a surplus.

Much more was discussed during Wednesday’s two-hour meeting. A full collection of reports by various speakers and the latest financial documents is available by clicking here

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.


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Tyler Clarke

About the Author: Tyler Clarke

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
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