Foundations expected to play role in health-care redevelopment
While there were no cost projections associated with a plan announcing sweeping changes to the delivery of health care in Cape Breton unveiled last week, supporting materials discussing funding mention working with local health-care foundations.
The information provided to media also noted that the province will consider all funding options, including a public-private partnership versus a gov- ernment build and will work with foundations and other partners.
The foundations in this region include the Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation, the New Waterford Consolidated Hospital Charitable Foundation and the Northside Harbourview Hospital Foundation.
The redevelopment plan involved new health centres in New Waterford and North Sydney, which would see their emergency departments close, and expansions to ERs at the Cape Breton Regional and Glace Bay hospitals. The ER closures have been the most controversial element of the plan. Greg Boone, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Health Authority, said hospital foundations and auxiliaries have served as supporters of projects in many hospitals and community health centres and projects that directly affect programs and services, including supporting capital projects and the purchase of equipment.
“That’s been a traditional relationship that’s been in place for decades,” he said. “They are a catalyst that ignites community generosity and people in communities across Cape Breton are well-known for their generosity and for that we’re always humbled and we’re appreciative, as we should be.”
Boone said members of the community contribute for various reasons and sometimes at great personal sacrifice.
Senior NSHA officials met with representatives of the groups on June 25 following the announced hospital closures, briefed them on the plans and talked to them about their ongoing support.
“While the scope may be bigger, our relationship with the foundations and auxiliaries is not changing,” Boone said.
“Those will be discussions we will have with the foundations and auxiliaries about their role and about the community’s share and contributing to the redevelopment, all pieces of the redevelopment.”
When asked if they would likely be asked to help raise funds for the capital costs associated with the plan, Boone said those specific details haven’t been identified yet.
“Once we know what we need to build and what services and programs will need support, those are decisions that will come as we get through into our design phase and such,” Boone said.
A nine- to 12-month functional planning process is about to begin that is expected to determine those details and designs.
Brad Jacobs, CEO of the Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation, noted it is an independent body with its own board of directors and governance structure.
It works in partnership with the NSHA and the province to support health care but it doesn’t report to either of them. The authority decides which potential projects, either capital or equipment, that it wants to support.
“We as a board look at all of the deemed-to-be prioritized items by the health authority and the provincial government and make decisions accordingly,” he said.
“We have the ability to say yes or no to particular projects. There have been projects in the past that we’ve supported at 100 per cent donor dollars from the community and then we’ve had some great partnerships along the way with projects like the MRI and the linear accelerator for the cancer centre.”
In making those determinations, Jacobs said they look through the perspective of the donor to see what projects the community is likely to support.
The foundation was originally formed for the creation of a health-care complex to allow better care closer to home. In 1991, it launched a $6-million fundraising campaign for a new regional hospital with $3 million committed to hospital construction and $3 million for a cancer centre. It also held another major capital campaign to renovate and provide new equipment for the cancer centre, which concluded in 2011.
It total, it has raised more than $50 million to support health care at the regional hospital.
From last week’s announcement, the component that Jacobs said excited him most was the planned doubling in size of the Cape Breton Cancer Centre. It was built to serve 16,000 people annually but currently sees 40,000.
There were 1,951 new cancer diagnoses locally last year, Jacobs said — a 135 per cent increase since the cancer centre opened in 1998.
“It’s an area that the foundation has had a tremendous amount of success in and we know that our donors are interested in and any campaign that we’ve executed tied to the cancer centre, we know that there’s been tremendous community interest in because, I think, ultimately the cancer centre impacts all of us in the community,” Jacobs said.
The centre treats patients from as far away as Guysborough and Pictou counties, he added.
The foundation is interested in finding out more about the potential cost and scope of that project, Jacobs said, but it’s still early in the process.
When asked if it may be difficult to go into the community and try to raise funds if there is a perception that they are losing something as part of the redevelopment plan, Jacobs said he can only speak from the perspective of the regional hospital site.
While it’s early in the process, given the plan that was revealed and with a 20,000-square-foot addition to the cancer centre proposed, Jacobs said it’s the sort of project to which he believes the foundation could commit a multiple-year campaign.
He added they’ve been interest in taking on a new major capital project for some time.