The proposed expansion for NEO Kids was not the only project at Health Sciences North to receive the North East Local Health Integration Network's (LHIN) board approval Tuesday.
The North East LHIN board also lent its support to a $7.9-million proposal to build a state-of-the-art hybrid operating room at the hospital.
“It is best practice now to have these hybrid operating room standards,” said North East LHIN board chair Danielle Bélanger-Corbin.
Hybrid operating rooms have become more common in southern Ontario, but northeastern Ontario surgeons do not yet have access to one.
“With these capital projects we're trying to look at the whole concept of health equity a little more for northerners,” Bélanger-Corbin.
With the LHIN's approval the hospital will enter a competitive process so it can make its case with the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care to receive the funding necessary to build the hybrid operating room.
The operating room would be equipped with a CT scanner that would make it easier for Health Sciences North surgeons to perform the latest minimally-invasive procedures.
The hybrid operating room would help with procedures like transcatheter aortic valve implantation, where cardiac surgeons replace a damaged heart valve without opening a patient's chest cavity.
The procedure is beneficial for high-risk patients, and leads to better recovery and mortality outcomes.
It would also allow for a new procedure called mechanical clot retrieval, where a blood clot is removed surgically after a person has had a stroke.
“This is relatively new technology but it's very effective,” said David McNeil, the hospital's vice-president of clinical programs and chief nursing officer.
Health Sciences North says 160 patients in northeastern Ontario travel south each year for procedures that require a hybrid operating room.
Another 250 patients would also benefit from the more advanced techniques the operating room would accommodate.
McNeil helped prepare the hospital's proposal to the North East LHIN, and congratulated its board for supporting the plan.
He said construction would make up around half of the estimated $7.9-million cost for the project, and the province would cover 90 per cent of that expenditure.
The hospital would need to cover the other half – primarily to purchase new equipment for the hybrid operating room – through fundraising initiatives.
“We'll look at our own capital reserves to see what we can put together over the course of the next year,” McNeil said.
If the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care approves the proposal, McNeil said the hybrid operating room could be up and running within two years.
