After sending the project back to the drawing board nearly a year ago, the North East Local Health Integration Network's board of directors gave NEO Kids the thumbs-up Tuesday afternoon, albeit a scaled-down version.
The Northeastern Ontario Health Centre for Kids, known as NEO Kids, will consolidate out-patient pediatric care into a centre at Health Science North.
The proposal will now be submitted to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and will have to compete with projects from across the province for capital dollars.
Health Sciences North was originally proposing a $55-million capital plan for NEO Kids, with the hospital contributing $8.4 million itself.
The version of the project approved by the North East LHIN May 10 is now $38 million, with HSN contributing $11 million, for a total cost of $49 million.*
“As you're very much aware, we aren't printing health care dollars as we were perhaps 20 years ago,” Danielle Bélanger-Corbin, the North East LHIN's board of directors, told Sudbury.com.
“I say that tongue in cheek, but obviously our fiscal reality is such that these very expensive projects need to be thoroughly looked at, and we really have to make sure that we are getting the best possible bang for our buck.
“So it was important for us to look at that amount and say '$55 million. That is a huge amount of money. Is there any way we can cut costs without compromising services to our pediatric population and still be able to meet the needs?'”
A press release from the North East LHIN said the new proposal contains more robust data that contains referral patterns in detail, as well as a lower cost.
It also meets several North East LHIN priorities, said the press release, including the inclusion of mental health services and better connections to First Nations communities.
When asked about the public backlash against the North East LHIN last year after it rejected the first version of the NEO Kids plan, Bélanger-Corbin said the board's job isn't to simply rubber-stamp projects.
“We've always been a very strong proponent of NEO Kids and of this project,” she said.
“We have a due diligence role as a board to make sure these projects are rock solid when they move onto the next stage … We don't simply rubber stamp proposals that come to our board. That would not be doing our job as a board of directors.
“It may have been perceived as we were saying no, but we weren't saying no. We were saying 'Let's make sure that we're dotting our 'i's and crossing our 't's to have the best possible plan out there.”
When asked if she's rooting for NEO Kids to move forward at the ministry level, Bélanger-Corbin said she definitely is.
“We've seen a lot of our pediatric patients having to travel a lot for service,” she said.
“I certainly hope we can offer those services as close to home as possible. My heart is saying yes, but again, these are difficult financial times for the province. I certainly hope the project will be able to get the attention it deserves and the funding it needs.”
Health Sciences North CEO Dr. Denis Roy, who spoke to Sudbury.com today before the board made its decision, said the hospital had been revising the project in collaboration with the North East LHIN.
He said there's definitely a need for NEO Kids, as 3,900 children with their families travelled to Toronto last year for care. That made for a total of 10,000 visits, he said.
*An earlier version of this story did not make it clear the total capital cost was $49 million.
