BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
Vascular surgeon Dr. John Fenton, his associates and staff celebrated the opening of the Sudbury Vascular Laboratory this week.
Although the clinic opened in Oak Plaza near Loach’s Rd. in May, the grand opening was Monday.
Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci and Sudbury Regional Hospital CEO Vickie Kaminski dropped by to give congratulations to the staff at the largest vascular clinic in Ontario.
Previously the clinic was located in a strip mall on Caswell Dr.
The new location can test twice as many patients as it did previously.
“The need for this service has just exploded over the past few years. We’ve been working with the hospital over the past few years to be able to expand and meet the demand,” said Fenton.
The clinic works in partnership with Sudbury Regional Hospital, and has its own board of directors.
The hospital covered some of the renovations to the new location, and will be paid back as the clinic earns money by charging the province for providing services.
Sudbury Vascular Laboratory is headed up by Fenton and fellow vascular surgeons Dr. Rod Willoughby and Dr. Santosh Pudupakkam.
There are also seven technicians and four secretarial staff working at the clinic.
“This clinic has been in existence for about 20 years, and it was started by Dr. Paul Field.
“When I started 13 years ago, we were located elsewhere in a fairly small facility,” said Fenton.
Fenton and his colleagues are now able to do 100 tests a day in the facility for life-threatening diseases that can lead to aneurysms and strokes. They use ultrasound machines to find arteries and veins that are blocked.
Once the doctors have a diagnosis, all operations and invasive procedures are carried out at the hospital.
The vascular lab isn’t located in the hospital because there isn’t enough space there.
The demand for vascular tests is high in Greater Sudbury partly because the vascular surgeons living in Timmins and North Bay have retired, and patients have to travel south for care, Fenton said.
There’s also a lot of vascular disease in the northeast because high rates of obesity, smoking and lack of physical activity.
“We’re just happy to be here (in the new location). It’s different for the patients as well.
“They seem much happier when they come to see us. It’s just worked out much better.”
Kaminski said a separate vascular clinic is an advantage to the hospital because they don’t have to find money for the service in their operating budget.
“It’s a bit like private business, but it’s still a government service,” she said.
