Millions in provincial money boosts Timmins and District Hospital

A total of $1.3 million in provincial funding for hospital emergency rooms will continue to help the Timmins and District Hospital reduce wait times.

“We have a physician assistant who works in our emergency department, as well we’re able to enhance the laboratory and turn around of testing-diagnostic testing," said Kate Fyfe, president and chief executive officer of the Timmins and District Hospital.

On Wednesday, the province also said the hospital will receive more than $7.2 million to support 38 beds at its alternate level of care site at St. Mary's Gardens.

Officials said the beds have already come in, but to make them fit, they had to take space away from other work areas such as the nursing station and the common room.

Efforts are now underway to reconfigure the layout.

The hospital said the funds allowed it to reduce the number of alternate level of care patients in the hospital from 51 per cent in 2021 to eight per cent now.

While Timmins is in the midst of an opioid crisis -- and local health officials are waiting to hear if the province will provide permanent funding for the supervised injection site -- those involved with this announcement said the funding is being put to good use.

“The beds are going over (to St. Mary's Gardens),” said Timmins MPP George Pirie.

"That alleviates the pressure on the hospital so it’s directly related and as far as any other announcements then obviously we’ll have to wait to see what happens.”

Fyfe said more patients who come to the emergency these days are dealing with serious illnesses.

“People are coming in with a high level of acuity so they’re sicker than what we’ve seen in the past,” Fyfe said.

“It can be cancer, it can be cardiac, we have a high prevalence of chronic disease in our region and so we see people that are in a more acute state so they require either an intervention -- a hospital stay or enhanced services.”

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Fyfe said last year, the hospital's emergency department ranked fourth out of 75 hospitals in the 'Pay for Results' one-time funding program. That was a testament, she said, to the hospital's bed capacity and additional supports put in place.

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli also announced $1.3 million in one-time funding for the North Bay Regional Health Centre to reduce wait times and provide people with care closer to home.