Philanthropy’s critical role in health care
Provincial funding doesn’t come close to covering all the costs involved
WILLIAM J. WALKER
As a grateful patient of St. Joe’s, a lawyer in our community for decades and current chair of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation, I want to commend those engaged in health-care philanthropy. It’s thanks in part to the support of thousands of donors that our hospital has emerged as a world-leading health care and research hub right here in Hamilton.
Yes, St. Joe’s is a world leader in areas like lung disease, kidney and urinary care, mental health and addictions and more. And we are very fortunate to benefit from that care. At the risk of oversharing, I’m a patient of the hospital’s Institute of Urology and feel very lucky to have had access to such impeccable care. In fact, it was that exceptional care that inspired me to make my very first gift to St. Joe’s back in 2009.
When a hospital foundation tells you every gift matters, they mean it. I’ve witnessed firsthand how donations small and large from our generous community have brought advanced surgical robots to St. Joe’s; how they helped build a more inclusive home for mental health care on the West 5th Campus; and more recently how they’ve funded muchneeded PPE and on-site research that has resulted in faster ways of diagnosing cases of the very pandemic we’re all facing right now.
You need to know that provincial health-care funding only covers the basic operations of a hospital like St. Joe’s. For the latest equipment, the most innovative research, and the power to truly change and advance care, well, for that kind of innovation we rely on the generosity and philanthropy of our community. And I want to reassure you that your donations have a direct impact on the care St. Joe’s provides to you and your loved ones.
In my role, I’ve also felt torn between feelings of pride and heartache when hearing stories about our health-care workers who risk their lives every day to save our friends, neighbours, and family from the ravages of COVID-19. Even as I write this, St. Joe’s staff are rushing into retirement homes and long-term-care centres that have been devastated by large-scale outbreaks of this virus to save and support our community’s most vulnerable populations. They are the heroes who will see us through this pandemic — just as their predecessors saw us through earlier ones.
St. Joseph’s 130-year legacy of caring for our community wasn’t built by one person. It was built by the collective compassion of generations of health-care professionals and bolstered by the philanthropic support of our community. And I for one, am proud to support St. Joe’s and thankful for the care they continue to provide, now more than ever.