County funds help redevelopment of Kingston hospitals

By Ross Lees
Sean Wang, Director of Development for the University Hospitals of Kingston Foundation, updated Prince Edward County council Tuesday night on how the County’s $500,000 pledge to the hospitals was being used.

Wang told council the ‘Together We Can Campaign’ had surpassed the $65 million mark and that they were expecting to hear word soon the campaign goal of $70 million had been achieved. The University Hospitals Kingston Foundation is the fundraising arm for Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston General Hospital and Providence Care.

“The reason the campaign has been so successful is because of the help of communities like yours,” Wang said.

In his update, Wang noted the $197 million redevelopment project of Kingston General Hospital was 87 per cent complete, adding bright, new inpatient units for pediatrics, medicine/oncology and inpatient dialysis were open, as were the first phases of the intensive care unit (ICU) expansion and the cancer centre outpatient clinics.

Wang said the new inpatient mental health unit, which was being moved from Hotel Dieu to Kingston General, was expected to open within the next few months and that the final phases of the cancer centre, ICU and the central processing service projects were expected to be completed by 2012.

Wang noted in his address that the oncology unit (branch of medicine that deals with cancer) was “one of the specific floors you donated to.” He said all of the redevelopment project was just part of the “continuum of care in a new hospital encompassing rehabilitation services, complex continuing care, geriatric and mental health services.”