St. Joseph’s General Hospital Auxiliary in Elliot Lake has kicked off the hospital foundation’s campaign to raise $324,000 to replace 54 hospital beds with a $14,745 donation for the purchase of three new beds.
The presentation was made this morning by auxiliary treasurer Faye Steel and past president Geraldine Robinson joining hospital CEO Pierre Ozolins for the announcement.
Ozolins said the donation will be coupled with smaller donations from the auxiliary to cover the cost of the three beds at $6,000 each. He also noted the auxiliary donation will be the first on a fundraiser thermometer sign outside the hospital.
The mandate of the auxiliary, founded in 1957, is to raise funds for capital equipment purchases. Robinson said the auxiliary over the years has donated about $2.5 million to the hospital. It raises money through community events such as spaghetti suppers, ticket sales, Christmas dinners and through its gift shop.
Many of those events this year had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 restriction protocols. The gift shop has remained open on a reduced schedule.
The $324,000 campaign is being led by William Elliott of the Foundation Board, who also led the recent campaign to raise money for a CT scanner at the local hospital. That successful campaign raised $1.8 million and work is underway to have the equipment in place and operational by mid-January next year.
When the campaign was officially launched in late October, Elliott said after the success of the CT scan fundraiser, the board decided to take on another fundraiser to replace the hospital beds.
Elliott told reporters at the unveiling that after the CT fundraiser people came to him asking, “what’s next” with the board agreeing to move ahead with the bed replacement campaign.
“The enthusiasm in the community to support the foundation and support the hospital was obviously there so as a board we sat down with Pierre the hospital administrator and asked what’s the next kind of need that we could address. The idea of the bed unit (hospital bed replacement) was an easy one,” Elliott said.
Ozolins said beds were last replaced 15 years ago.
“It goes back to improving the patient care and improving the patient experience,” Elliott said of the decision to replace the beds.
He added the $6,000 price per bed may sound expensive, but “anything to do with medical you add a premium on there.”
Elliot said donations of any amount can be made.