Thunder Bay open-heart surgery program needs up to $30M to begin
Health Sciences Centre executive vice president Mark Henderson says the hospital hopes doctors can perform cardiac and vascular surgery in the city.
The proposal is currently before the Ontario Ministry of Health.
“The long-term goal is to do heart surgery here in Thunder Bay on about 90 per cent of the patients we presently refer out,” he said.
“There will always be some very complicated patients that will need to do to larger centres, things like heart transplants, [and] that kind of thing.”
Henderson said the multi-million dollar price tag would cover 14 more beds for post-op recovery, specialized x-ray equipment and necessary renovations to an operating room.
Being able to do open-heart surgery in Thunder Bay would benefit patients across the northwest, he added.
“The cost of doing a bypass is the same — whether it's done here or Toronto — but the travel for patients is substantial. They're far away from home, so it makes a lot of sense to do these operations here.”
Henderson said the money would be used for extra post-op beds, as well as for renovations and equipment needed to establish a cardiovascular program.
Thunder Bay Regional currently performs surgeries like angioplasty, but Henderson said any open-heart surgery has to be done in Toronto, Ottawa, London, or Hamilton
Hospital officials have been working to provide heart surgery operations in Thunder Bay for about two years — a proposal that’s already received the blessing of the Cardiac Care Network.
"We're very hopeful that the cardiovascular proposal will be approved by the ministry in, hopefully, the next few weeks or few months, and then we can start."
Even after ministry approval, it will still take several years before heart surgery could start being performed at the hospital.