New cardiac lab for Kitchener's St. Mary's General Hospital announced by health minister

A new cardiac catheterization lab will be created at St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced Tuesday.

Jones was unable to say how much money the province will put toward the lab, but said any funding will go into "the planning, design and implementation" of the project. She said it was hard to give an exact dollar figure because of a "bid process," but said that the funds have already been set aside. 

Dr. Jaffer Syed, cardiology chief at St. Mary's General, said during the news conference that a new lab is needed because "demand for these services has never been higher."

"This is especially true for interventional cardiology procedures, which can only be safely performed within a specialized cardiac catheterization lab," Syed said.

"Restoring blood flow during a heart attack with a balloon and a stent, the treatment of angina, and even replacing a patient's heart valve without needing open heart surgery are some of the many procedures performed in the cath lab by our highly skilled team of physicians, nurses and technologist."  

Jones said the new lab will allow the hospital "to complete even more vital … procedures, reducing wait lists, and wait times and reducing the time for people to wait for those procedures."

Mark Fam, the hospital's president, said they serve thousands of patients each year and it's anticipated the new lab "will let us increase that significantly" by 50 per cent.

"The benefit is it'll stop patients from having to go to our local centres around us in Hamilton, Toronto and London," he said.

There was no specific timeline for when the third lab would be completed.