Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation enjoys successful financial year
Despite the reality of COVID-19 cancelling or postponing a number of fundraisers, the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation has still carried forward a healthy financial bottom line from 2021.
The Foundation hosted their second consecutive virtual annual general meeting this past Tuesday, where they reported a net surplus of $275,164. When combined with $62,496 from the Canadian emergency wage subsidy, the Foundation realized a total surplus of $337,660 for 2020.
“I think financially it was a good year,” noted Jim Dekowny, Executive Director of the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation.
He credited part of the strong finances to people making donations in lieu of taking warm weather vacations and other travels. “Maybe they donated instead. I think it showed at the Radiothon more than anything because we’ve never hit that $150,000,” he said. “That just shows the compassion and what people believe in in the Southwest, and the Foundation.”
The financial statements from the annual general meeting outline that the Foundation’s total assets grew from $5.1 million to $5.5 million this year. Their net assets at the end of the year grew to $5.48 million, up from $5.13 million the previous year.
“I think for us to be as successful as we were, being able to do a different type of a golf tournament, do a different type of a Black Tie hockey draft, and do something different for a Radiothon, I think it goes to saying the type of staff with Chris Johnson and Sara Adrian and Gladys Martens we were just able to turn on a dime, get things done, and we’ve got a great team and a great group.
“At the end of the day it all goes out to the people of the Southwest. It goes out to the people that care about healthcare. And they care about keeping people close to home for healthcare.”
Dekowny added that a continued focus of the Foundation remains sharing information about their fundraising efforts and the equipment which has been distributed to healthcare facilities across the entire Southwest.
“Educating the people of what we do. The $21 million that we’ve raised since we started the Foundation and it’s all gone to the Southwest. And it’s not just Swift Current, it’s Ponteix, it’s Climax, it’s Herbert, it’s Cabri, it’s Leader, it’s Maple Creek. To us it’s important that we tell our story and show what we’ve done in the past and how we will continue to do it in the future.”
“It’s important that people care about that. And the donors have just stepped up and come to the plate. And I think they believe in what we’re doing. And thanking them is probably the most important think we can do.”
“As we embark on our 22nd year, the team at the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation continues to work hard and innovate new ways
to conduct fundraising in 2021. We thank all our supporters and partners who have shown great generosity during the difficult times that 2020 brought. The Foundation will continue to strive to keep local healthcare strong for all the residents of Southwest Saskatchewan.”
Physician Executive Dr. Kevin Wasco, who leads the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s Integrated Rural Health team for southern Saskatchewan, was the AGM’S guest speaker, and he shared a perspective of the state of the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
Dr. Wasco, who still practices in Swift Current along with his SHA responsibilities, acknowledged the Foundation’s fundraising campaign which provided a 4K Ultra High-definition Laparoscopic Surgical Tower which is an important equipment upgrade in the Surgical Department at the Cypress Regional Hospital.
“From someone who works clinically here in Swift Current as well, recognizing that we do want for our patients to have as good of quality of services here in Swift
Current as one would receive in Saskatoon or Regina in terms of the equipment that we have, so that the surgeons performing the surgeries have the best technology at their disposal and are able to perform their jobs with the right tools.”
“It’s an expensive tool but it’s a tool that I think is needed to be able to keep up with where we’re at with evolving technologies and making sure that the people of Southwest Saskatchewan have access to high quality surgeries.”
Dr. Wasco noted that obviously COVID has dominated healthcare this past year, but he noted that the Cypress Regional Hospital has been able to continue with a full range of surgeries while locations like Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, North Battleford and Moose Jaw are currently only performing urgent or emergency surgeries.
Swift Current will also remain a busy surgical location in a POST-COVID healthcare system.
“When we emerge from COVID towards the end of the summer, and we need to start to work through those backlogs, we really have to take a provincial approach and try to maximize all of our operating rooms and all of the surgeons and all of the teams across the province. And I think that’s where having the right equipment and the technology locally thanks to the Foundation will play a big role in our provincial response to ensuring that we’re running on all cylinders and using all the resources that we have available to us as a province to recover.”
He also felt that the challenges of COVID have allowed the Saskatchewan Health Authority to strengthen as an organization because of the way they were forced to adjust and adapt to the pandemic.
“If it had to happen at any point in time, happening two and a half to three years into the provincial organization was actually a pretty good time. Because had been able to take shape as a provincial health authority and had a provincial outlook. It wasn’t brand new.”
“And we were able to adapt and really figure out through a major pressing issue how we work together as one single health authority for the province. And I really do think that the people of Saskatchewan are better off for that approach to how we deliver healthcare. Because we had provincial standards, provincial consistency, we could draw upon expertise of people no matter where they were in the province, and really be able to leverage the best that we have to offer for all of the people of Saskatchewan. We weren’t scrambling to figure out 13 different ways to approach a problem. But we had one way. These are the standards we have for how our healthcare providers are provided with personal protective equipment. This is what we require of them. This is what we require of screening when people come to work or people enter the facilities in the province. And it’s all the same no matter where you go. And it really was a real example of how we minimized variation in the system which is important to ensure that we have high quality care that’s provided.”