I think it’s fair to say this has been a once-in-a-lifetime summer for Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation.
It’s been about a year since we learned the Haliburton hospital was approved for a CT scanner and mammography unit. It was big news. After all, the Highlands was the last remaining County in Ontario without the diagnostics machines. That the announcement rolled out a few weeks after the shuttering of the Minden ER, though, was less ideal.
That’s why when Foundation lead Melanie Klodt Wong estimated she’d have to raise in the ballpark of $4.3 million to pay for the machines, I thought it would be tough going. Too many were disillusioned with the way HHHS was doing things. As much as this amazing community has rallied behind even the most obscure of causes in the four years I’ve been here, this would surely be a bridge too far.
Apparently not.
Klodt Wong announced last Friday that not only had the Foundation raised the $4.3 million needed to cover the cost of CT and mammography, they were making one final push to try and bring in extra money to replace overaged x-ray units in the Haliburton ER. As of press time, they had around $700,000, requiring at least another $1 million.
The community just keeps stepping up. Kennisis Lake cottagers Christine Tutssel and Rob Holl became the fourth family to gift six figures to the Foundation this summer, on Monday committing to matching all other donations up to $500,000 up to Oct. 31, or until the $500,000 has been met.
After already seeing Scott and Chere Campbell donate an initial $500,000 and match donations on another $500,000, the Cockwell family and Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve gift $500,000, and Richard Muir give $200,000, Klodt Wong admitted she’s been blown away by the number of major donations.
It’s meant the ‘Here for You in the Highlands’ campaign will go down in history as the Foundation’s most successful fundraiser.
There have been many other notable highlights – Klodt Wong said she and Rick Lowes, the voice of MooseFM, were dumbfounded during the annual Radiothon, which raked in a record $537,000. Phones rang off the hook for two straight days– some gave what they could, a few bucks, others a couple grand. That’s what’s been pretty special about all of this – it’s been a true community effort.
Do these machines replace what was lost with the Minden ER? Not even close. However, their arrival is probably the most significant addition the Haliburton hospital has seen since it was built in 2001.
They’ll save a ton of time and money – CT currently sees about 20 people per day. Before, those patients were forced to travel outside to get scanned. Often, it would be paramedics from Haliburton County EMS transporting them, taking an ambulance and much-needed staff out of the Highlands for hours on end.
Tim Waite, EMS chief, told us paramedics completed more than 350 patient transfers in 2023, the bulk of those for CT scans. On average, they were out-of-County for six hours. In 2022, Waite told County council the average transfer for CT costs about $720. It’s surely only gone up since but using those figures savings could reach $252,000 annually.
Given EMS is funded by the County, that’s money back into all Highlanders’ pockets.
Congratulations to the HHHS Foundation for what has been a banner campaign. And thank you to the community for once again stepping up to the plate and hitting a monster home run.
