London's Hospital Developments & Research

[MolsonExport]

Wow. A-M deC-B should be all over this!!

[ldoto]

Creation of the Breast Care Centre at St. Joseph's Hospital will allow London to attract the best and the brightest specialists, says the head of the project.

"When you have the best in technology and you really have the best of staff available, that is the place where the best and brightest want to come,"

said Dr. Don Taves, a radiologist at St. Joseph's and professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Taves said the centre - a project 10 years in the making - will bring together technologists, nursing staff, administrative staff, radiologists and surgeons on one site, along with high-tech diagnostic equipment.

"The resources we are looking at are relatively expensive and from an imaging standpoint particularly, they are expensive. We need to use those resources wisely," he said.

For surgeons, who now see patients at St. Joseph's, University and Victoria Hospitals, it will be a dream come true to have their patients at one site in the city, Taves said.

It will also allow surgeons to combine their expertise, he said.

The new centre, to be opened in phases, is designed to tackle the long waits for breast-cancer patients in London, which are double the Ontario average.

Women here currently wait anywhere from 49 days to more than five months from the first abnormal imaging test to cancer treatment.

Taves said consolidating diagnostic and surgery at one site will make the centre more accountable to the government and patients.

"It will be our job. We can't pawn it off and say somebody else should be doing it," he said.

Under the plan, hospital-based breast screening, diagnostic assessment and surgery services - now provided at St. Joseph's Health Care and London Health Sciences Centre - will be consolidated at St. Joseph's.

Ontario Breast Screening Program sites outside of the hospitals will continue to be offered at those community sites.

Radiation therapy and chemotherapy will remain at the London Regional Cancer Program at the Victoria Hospital site.

The first steps in creating the breast care centre are already underway, with the move of diagnostic assessment services to St. Joseph's Hospital.

The entire project is expected to be completed by Sept. 2011.

Fact box Hospital-based breast screening, diagnostic assessment and surgery services - currently provided at St. Joseph's Health Care, London and London Health Sciences Centre - will be consolidated at St. Joseph's.

Timetable:

October 2010: Hospital-based breast screening, diagnostic assessment for women found with an abnormality, surgery clinics and breast surgery will move into existing space at St. Joseph's Hospital.

March/April 2011: Hospital-based breast screening will move to Parkwood Hospital.

Sept. 2011: Once renovations are complete, diagnostic assessment and surgery clinics will move into a specially designed breast care centre at St. Joseph’s Hospital.


What's not moving?

Radiation therapy and chemotherapy will remain at the London Regional Cancer Program of London Health Sciences Centre. Ontario Breast Screening Program sites outside the hospital setting will continue to be available.

[ldoto]

London will soon see its own version of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

This makeover, however, is different.

The overhaul of one house will help accommodate more than 800 families.

The Ronald McDonald House of Southwestern Ontario launched the final phase of its Extreme Expansion campaign at the Best Western Lamplighter Inn on Friday.

The federal and provincial governments have committed $5.2 million in stimulus funding to the project. Corporate and private donors also have stepped forward to put London’s Ronald McDonald house closer to its goal of $8.5 million.

The house at 741 Base Line Rd. E. serves as a home away from home for families whose children are receiving medical treatment in London.

For the Broad family, the house was a lifeline.

In 2006, Jacob Broad was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma and leukemia at the age of nine.

Jacob’s parents, Steve and Karen Broad, said they travelled back and forth from Wallaceburg while their son was being treated in London.

Their stay at the Ronald McDonald House meant the family could be together in a comfortable environment during a difficult time.

“It’s important when your child is that sick for you all to be as a family. Our other kids would come up on the weekends and they would also stay at the Ronald McDonald House. That helped all of us to just get through it, “ Karen Broad said.

“The house was kind of like a safe haven from the hospital because the hospital’s so busy . . . Just to get away from there, even for half an hour was nice.”

Steve Broad said many families need the kind of help his family received. He said some families stayed in nearby hotels when the house was full.

“They always had people staying at the Lamplighter. There was always more demand on the house, for the size of the house.”

Steve Broad is excited about the upcoming expansion because it will help more families.

“If we didn’t have the house, I don’t know what we would have done.”

Jacob Broad, 13, has fully recovered. He is happy to have had his family by his side during his treatments.

“It was really nice. It really took the pressure off from having cancer. It made me forget about having it quite a bit, so it wasn’t as bad as everyone would think.”

He thinks the house and staff are amazing.

“You can really feel the love.”

The new Ronald McDonald House

When the $8.5-million expansion is completed, the house will help 800 families a year, an increase from the current 400.

The number of bedrooms will increase to 34 from 17 rooms. The current space of 17,000 sq. ft. will more than double to 37,200 sq. ft.

The expanded facility will re-open in March 2011.

Go to rmhsouthwesternontario.ca for information on how to donate.

[ldoto]

London will be home to a $28-million national centre being set up to capture a bigger share of the global medical imaging market for Canada. Announced in Ottawa Monday, the London-based Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization and Research will help newly-formed and existing medical imaging companies become internationally competitive. It's estimated the market for medical imaging equipment and software is more than $20 billion a year and growing by 4% a year. Canadian companies now have less than 1% of that market.

"The focus will be on commercializing imaging technologies across Canada," said Aaron Fenster, director of the imaging research labs at the Robarts Research Institute in London and the Canada research chair in biomedical engineering. "There are enormous opportunities," Fenster said. The decision to base the national centre in London confirms the high quality of the research done at the University of Western Ontario and Robarts, said Peter White, president of the London Economic Development Corp. "It's an exceptional announcement for London," White said.

Part of the centre's work will be to help university professors to forming spinoff companies to take their research to market. "We also need to invest in making sure the small companies that are spun off become successful and don't get out-competed," Fenster said.

Expertise provided by the centre will include software, clinical trials experience, and regulatory support. Medical imaging covers a wide range of methods used to create images of the human body and its functions, often to diagnose ailments and diseases, X-rays and ultrasounds are forms of medical imaging, along with MRI scans, which generate images from external magnetic waves directed at the body, and nuclear imaging, which relies on electromagnetic waves emitted from within using a radioactive marker introduced into the bloodstream.

Canada faces stiff competition in medical imaging from Europe and growing competition from China, Fenster said. The centre, based out of UWO, will hire about 30 people, including engineers, software developers and managers. "They will be high-quality jobs," Fenster said. The federal government is putting up $13.3 million for the centre, with another $14 million coming from other sources such as industry giant General Electric and the Canadian Institute for Cancer Research.

Both UWO and the University of Toronto, which have large labs and state-of-the-art facilities, have been active in spinning off imaging companies, Fenster said. "We have been active, but we need to become more active," he said.

[Kokkei Mizu]

That's great to hear!! I wonder where the centre will be built...

[MolsonExport]

thanks for all the positive news, Ldoto!

[ldoto]

What are they building at the Parkwood Hospital,Victoria Hospital & Children's Hospital. They have some cranes up there for about 2 mouths!!!

[Snark]

It's the replacement for the Highbury Hilton going in there. Three great things about this:

1) Patients get a state-of-the art facility.
2) Lots of patients get to be transferred to local facilities closer to home (such as K-W, which finally get real facilities for folks in such need).
3) The lands of the current facility are up for grabs. Any number of interesting proposals are afoot...

Originally Posted by ldoto

What are they building at the Parkwood Hospital,Victoria Hospital & Children's Hospital. They have some cranes up there for about 2 mouths!!!

[Simpseatles]

Originally Posted by ldoto

What are they building at the Parkwood Hospital,Victoria Hospital & Children's Hospital. They have some cranes up there for about 2 mouths!!!

I think the cranes near Victoria Hospital are for another parking garage.

I didn't realize that the ones at Parkwood were for a new regional mental health facility. If that means that the land on the current one is really up for grabs then I can't wait to see what could be placed there. There are so many possibilities, I mean the tract of land it takes up is HUGE! Accept, are the buildings there of any historical significance?

[ldoto]

Update!!!!

New mental health centres to cost $830M

One of the region’s largest construction projects will reduce patient beds in the area

One of the London-area’s largest construction projects ever, it’ll also mark a new era in regional health care.

After 10 years’ planning, St. Joseph’s Health Care London and the province have chosen a consortium led by homegrown contracting giant, EllisDon Corp., to build new mental health care facilities in London and St. Thomas.

The $830-million project includes a new 156-bed, 456,000-sq.-ft. mental health care treatment centre that’ll be built just south of Parkwood Hospital and replace aging Regional Mental Health Care London, formerly London Psychiatric Hospital, on Highbury Ave.

A specialized 89-bed facility — about half the size of the London complex — will be built in St. Thomas for forensic mental health care, dealing with patients involved in the criminal justice system.

That project will be built on the grounds of the Regional Mental Health Care St. Thomas and replace the existing facility.

The two projects are expected to create 400 to 450 construction jobs.

The contract will be the biggest EllisDon has taken on in London since the company — builder of hospitals across North America, and of such monumental works as Toronto’s SkyDome and London’s Canary Wharf — was founded in London 60 years ago.

“It’s probably one of the biggest projects this city has ever seen,” said Brian Waltham, EllisDon’s vice-president for Southwestern Ontario.

The new facilities will usher in much-improved mental health care, said Sandy Whittall, vice-president of mental health services at St. Joseph. Institutional wards and communal washrooms will be replaced by comfortable private rooms with a view of London’s Westminster Ponds.

“It brings (patients) a sense of independence and respect. There will be lots of light coming into the rooms, so there’s a real sense of hope and encouragement,” she said.

As they progress, patients will move through the building with different levels of care facilities dubbed “house,” “neighbourhood” and “downtown.”

The “downtown” area will be in front of the building and include a cafeteria, retail outlets and auditorium.

“It will demonstrate the recovery philosophy of care that they can see themselves, progressing and moving back out into the community,’ said Whittall.

The 245 total beds at the new facilities will be fewer than the 441 beds now available LPH and St. Thomas.

Whittall said a restructuring plan has transferred some of those beds to facilities in Kitchener, Windsor and Hamilton and St.-Thomas Elgin General Hospital.

The remaining shortfall of 70 beds will be handled by moving patients into the community and treating them as outpatients.

Whittall said St. Thomas handles some forensic patients but will now specialize in that function.

She said the St. Thomas forensic facility will have security appropriate to handle minimum- to medium-risk cases. A facility in Penitanguishene handles patients requiring maximum-level security.

The consortium will provide the upfront financing to build and maintain the projects. The provincial government will pay the developers back over a 30-year period.

Construction will begin in a few weeks and should be completed by Dec. 2014.

BY THE NUMBERS

$830 million: Total cost

30 years: Provincial payback time to developers

450: Construction jobs

156: Beds at new London facility

89: Beds at new

St. Thomas facility

441: Bed-total now

[MrSlippery519]

Does anyone know what they will do with the old LPH? They have quite a large amount on land off Highbury will be interesting to see what happens there.

[ForestryW]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

Does anyone know what they will do with the old LPH? They have quite a large amount on land off Highbury will be interesting to see what happens there.

http://www.london.ca/d.aspx?s=/Plann...ondonpsych.htm

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by van Hemessen

http://www.london.ca/d.aspx?s=/Plann...ondonpsych.htm

Thanks man appreciate it. Seems like Oxford will be "student type" housing which makes perfect sense.

[Highinthesky]

Great news for London and St Thomas. Both communities needed something like this.

[new age]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

Thanks man appreciate it. Seems like Oxford will be "student type" housing which makes perfect sense.

What would make you say that the cities plan calls for live&work mixed use buildings and medium density retirement homes.

Three blocks in the North East corner are recommended for use by Fanshawe. The rest of the neighborhood is meant to be an extension of the urban center of the city. Most of the houses will be out of the price rang of students; except for some of the high density along Highbury and at the corner of Oxford.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by new age

What would make you say that the cities plan calls for live&work mixed use buildings and medium density retirement homes.

Three blocks in the North East corner are recommended for use by Fanshawe. The rest of the neighborhood is meant to be an extension of the urban center of the city. Most of the houses will be out of the price rang of students; except for some of the high density along Highbury and at the corner of Oxford.

That is where I was referring to

[new age]

My bad, I agree the areas on the outside edges will be very attractive to students (lets hope there attractive too.) The buildings that is; hell the students to. lol

Seriously this has great potential, and looks to be a holistic approach to the neighbourhood.

[manny_santos]

From the London Free Press:
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2.../17669896.html

‘Here, I have to wait forever’

PATIENTS LOSING PATIENCE

By RANDY RICHMOND, The London Free Press

Raised in Communist Romania and now a London scientist, she has a unique perspective on Ontario's health-care system.

It's not one Ontario's Liberal government would like to hear.

"Romania is rich in resources, agriculture and oil. Yet everybody was starving under the Communist regime," says Joanne Smith (not her real name).

"It was not because of a lack of resources, but a mismanagement of resources. I think it is the same with the medical system. It is just not effective."

Even worse, our system seems cold and out-dated.

Smith has visited medical facilities in the U.S. and Romania, trying to get help for her daughter.

In the U.S., she wasn't as surprised by the short wait times and the focus on the patient - evident in the Patients Bill of Rights posted on doorways and suggestion boxes in hallways of the Detroit Medical Centre.

After one procedure, "I got a thank you card all the nurses and doctors signed. 'Thank you for choosing the Detroit Medical Centre,' " she recalls.

"You feel you are important. Your feelings matter."

In Romania, she saw three specialists in one day.

"I was really shocked. All three had better equipment than I have seen in London."

Smith doesn't want her real name used, for personal reasons not related to her medical journey.

She's an accomplished scientist and University of Western Ontario professor who professes great love for her adopted country, which gave her a home and freedom after spending her early years in Romania.

Two journeys through Canada's medical system, however, have the logical Smith frustrated.

In October 2009, she began experiencing severe stomach pains.

Her doctor referred her to a lab, where technicians offered her an appointment in January.

"You must be kidding," Smith says. "I am doubling up in pain and I can't get even a test done until January."

She found a company to arrange an appointment with a specialist in Detroit. A few days later, she received a full diagnosis and returned to Canada with a treatment plan that solved her problems.

A few years later, Smith went looking again for help for her daughter. The young girl had enlarged adenoids that made it difficult to breathe through her nose.

The girl had trouble sleeping and suffered sore throats and sinus trouble.

So Smith went to her family doctor and got a referral to a specialist.

The specialist said an operation wasn't worth the trouble and the girl would outgrow it.

A year later, Smith visited her homeland and decided to see what doctors there said.

All three said the adenoids had to come out - the sooner, the better.

So Smith returned to Canada and got referred to another London specialist. The first available appointment was in 18 months.

She then tried to get to a specialist in Strathroy. It was now August 2010. The earliest appointment was the end of November.

"That was just the first assessment. I was thinking, it will be at least six months later until I get the procedure."

Smith found another company that could send her to a U.S. specialist.

She got an appointment in September and in November - a few weeks before her scheduled appointment with the Strathroy specialist - the surgery was done at Detroit Medical Centre.

"I went in the morning and by three o'clock we were back on our way to London."

The cost, including the specialist appointment, was about $7,000.

If she had stayed in Canada, "I'd probably still be waiting for the surgery."

Smith doesn't think the system necessarily needs more money.

"Romania is not a well developed country. I can get anything done whenever I want. Here I have to wait forever."

Smith is no fan of the U.S. system, where lower income people can't get proper health insurance.

But Canada needs a system that has a bit of competition for medical professionals, perhaps a merit system based on patient feedback, she says.

Smith says doctors and nurses need to work a little more quickly and effectively, getting rid of the "la de dah" mentality she sees in long coffee breaks and nurses chatting while emergency rooms fill up.

Most of all, Canadians need to start demanding change, Smith says.

"I love Canada, but the health system is in bad shape. I don't really understand how more people don't complain. Maybe they think it's so good; it's for free," Smith says.

"Well, it's not for free," she adds. "I spend half my salary for taxes."

E-mail randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca, or follow RandyRatlfpress on Twitter.

Discuss.

[manny_santos]

To get the ball rolling, from my experience dealing with London's hospitals with regards to various family members, I found staff at St. Joseph's to be far more professional in both their treatment of patients and their dealings with family members. I do not wish to get into specifics on a public forum but I have always found LHSC staff to have a poor attitude towards family members. They don't even care what family members want; you have to get in their faces and demand things just to get things done, and even then they take a condescending attitude towards everyone involved. This is why the Baby Joseph fiasco does not surprise me in the least.

I've never been a fan of the American health care system, but I seriously think we need something in between Canada's broken system and America's unaffordable system. Some countries have a graduated payment system, where everyone goes to the same hospitals but what you pay is based on your ability to pay. The poorest pay nothing, and the richest pay full price, with several other price points in between. I know patriotic Canadians are uncomfortable with the idea of tiered-payment health care because it's part of our identity, but sometimes we need to take off our ethnocentric blinders for a moment as it is easy to assume our own country's system is the best one.

[Pimpmasterdac]

I've personally been to both St. Joseph's & LHSC. Aside from the waiting time that plagues both institutions, I have nothing but positive things to say. Both treated me and my family with professionalism and compassion that people would expect from health-care providers.

With regard to the Baby Joseph fiasco, I wouldn't be quick to jump on LHSC for how they handled the dilemma. I have family members who work in Victoria and Baby Joseph caused all sorts of headaches. Because lawyers we involved nurses had to constantly watch over the baby, while reducing their time on other patients.

As far as "not caring what family members want" that's a very simplistic view. Baby Joseph has a terminal illness, that sadly he will die from and NOTHING can be done to stop this. The family wanted a Tracheotomy which is a very painful, expensive and operation that is only done where its medically needed. In Joseph's case its not medically need or warranted, its something the family with no medical training themselves want. IF LHSC had proceeded, it would bring scrutiny to why there doing unnecessary procedures and if anything happened could open them up to a lawsuit!

When he was moved to Michigan, the hospital there also agreed with LHSCs diagnosis and refused to preform a Tracheotomy as well. It's only now with the issue being a springboard for "pro-life" religious groups that are using baby Joseph as a means of bashing Canadian healthcare that a religious group has agreed to pay for everything and found a doctor in Missouri who would perform the operation.

Agree with you on Canada's healtcare system. The status quo simply unsustainable, heathcare costs are predicted to eat up more than 60% of provincial budgets. Canadians wanting to have lower taxes but expect the same level of social services is not realistic. Some from of a private or tiered system will ultimately have to emerge if we are to have a sustainable healthcare system. Unfortunately all political parties have been telling Canadians they can have their cake and eat it too when it comes to healthcare costs escalating and taxes decreasing!