Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation: Making the O.R. a priority Irene and Leslie Dubé pledge $1 million to Foundation
“We need you to help provide the best and latest equipment for Saskatoon City Hospital’s Operating Room (O.R),” says Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation CEO Steve Shannon. “You can ensure that patients – people like your grandma, uncle or son – and maybe you – have timely access to critical procedures. This is why the Foundation created Making the O.R. a Priority.”
He says the campaign is a $3.7 million initiative that will replace and upgrade equipment used in operating rooms. “Doing half of all surgeries in the city, it’s a busy place. With 12 separate operating theatres, the O.R. performs dozens of surgeries every day, adding up to almost 12,000 procedures every year. Procedures performed include gynecology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, cystoscopy, urology, and cancerrelated surgeries.”
As the Saskatchewan population grows and ages, the number of procedures in the O.R. increases every year. This takes a toll on the equipment.
Terry Nixey, manager of the Operating Room, says two factors affect equipment, the first being age. “Many pieces have reached end of life. They can’t be repaired and aren’t supported by manufacturers. Replacement is the only option, especially for pieces that are critically needed.”
Heavy usage is another factor, Nixey adds. “Because they’re frequently used, pieces wear out or break down faster. It’s important to replace and upgrade to maintain the flow of procedures.”
Shannon says major pieces of the initiative include new equipment in the cystoscopy suite, upgrading the microscope for ophthalmologic surgeries, and replacing steam sterilizers in the hospital’s Medical Device Reprocessing department.
Friends of the hospital and well-known community supporters Irene and Leslie Dubé
That’s why they’re pledging a matching gift of $1 million. The gift supports the campaign and also the recent purchase of nine bedside and two central cardiac monitors for the Emergency Department.
It’s one of many gifts the couple has made to Saskatoon
City Hospital Foundation, including a donation that helped create the Irene and Leslie Dubé Centre of Care, the Breast Health Centre in 2006. The Dubés later made major gifts to expand the centre and upgrade the hospital’s digital radiography suite.
Les Dubé says there was one aspect of the
O.R. a Priority campaign they were especially pleased to support – a major upgrade to the hospital’s cystoscopy suite. The suite is used for treating urological issues such as extreme kidney stones and bladder or prostate cancers.
“We wanted to support that part because it matches what we’ve given to urology medicine in other hospitals,” Les says. In 2017, St. Paul’s Hospital opened a new centre, thanks to the Dubés and named it the Leslie and Irene Dubé Urology Centre of Health.
With a strong belief in philanthropy and the community, the Dubé name is prevalent in Saskatoon. A drive down College Drive will take you past the Dubé Centre for Mental Health, the Leslie and Irene Dubé Health Sciences Library, and the Les and Irene Dubé Community Service-learning Program in St. Thomas More College.
Les says their reason for giving is faith-based. “We believe we’ve been well rewarded in our lives and it’s because of our faith. This is why we support the community any way we can. We believe we have a responsibility, wherever we see a need, to do something to help others.”
For their kind, enduring and unfaltering support of the community and the hospital, Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation sincerely thanks Irene and Les Dubé.