The QEII Foundation cares deeply about advancing health care. But we can’t do it alone. We all have a role to play in health care and we are grateful for donors — both individuals and organizations — who directly support change and provide solutions to some of health care’s biggest challenges.
Take wait times as an example. By working closely with our partners at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, the QEII Foundation has been able to affect major impact in several key areas for timely diagnoses or life-changing treatment.
As a result of QEII Foundation funding, the QEII’s new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) opened, giving more Atlantic Canadians a chance at a new life, seizure free. The EMU is a specialized inpatient unit designed to evaluate, diagnose and treat seizures — identifying the source of the seizures and determining if a patient can have surgery.
Our $2.5-million Neuroscience Alliance campaign provided the EMU with two new inpatient beds. The QEII’s epilepsy team is now able to diagnose and treat more patients each year — an increase to 75 patients per year from 40-45 patients per year.
The QEII’s new Joseph Shannon Family Cardiac Catheterization Suite sees about 5,800 patients per year. The original suite — one of four catheterization suites at the QEII — closed in 2016 when its aging equipment became unserviceable. The QEII Foundation’s $4.5-million From the Heart campaign re-opened this suite, making sure wait times did not increase and ensured the QEII’s heart health teams can deliver the best care during procedures like angiograms, angioplasties and pacemaker implantations, for patients from across the Maritimes.
“As a result of QEII Foundation funding, the QEII’s new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) opened, giving more Atlantic Canadians a chance at a new life, seizure free.”
Thanks to donors to the original Cancer Never Waits campaign, which raised more than $4 million, the QEII Foundation celebrated the opening of The James and Edna Claydon Radiation Treatment Clinic. Aimed at reducing wait times and improving treatment options, the more than $20-million expansion to the cancer centre — jointly funded by government and the QEII Foundation — transformed the care journey for patients receiving radiation therapy at the QEII.
This transformation included establishing one of North America’s best and most innovative radiation treatment clinics and funding three new linear accelerators, reducing treatment times for patients and radiation wait times, overall. These linear accelerators provide unparalleled image guidance to target a patient’s tumour with the utmost precision and accuracy, avoiding harm to the surrounding healthy tissues.
Philanthropy has a direct correlation to reducing wait times, improving accessibility and impacting care for Atlantic Canadians. When you give, patients are getting the care they need and deserve.
For more information about the QEII Foundation, call 902 334 1546 or drop us a line at info@qe2foundation.ca.
