During Monday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting in Smiths Falls, Michael Cohen, President and CEO of the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital led a delegation to ask for the town’s commitment to providing $180,000 in support of the core capital program for the upcoming fiscal year. Cohen provided an update on growth and future redevelopment goals for the PSFDH.

He pointed out that there are “serious infrastructure issues at our Perth site, we are proposing to plan for growth there at this time.” He added that plans and change take time, it can easily be 7-10 years from first plan to first patient. 

As part of the hospital’s master plan, PSFDH aims to “improve safety and quality through technological innovation.” These plans are already underway, Cohen explained, citing the state-of-the-art strip packaging solution at the Smiths Falls site. “Automation increases patient safety,” Cohen said, as this can decrease errors in medication transcription to almost zero.

Councilor Brennan spoke up in support of honouring this request., “I know for a fact that the hospital is the most important facility we have in our town.  I know that the Smiths Falls site went through a redevelopment in the past decade. If I recall correctly, at the time, the provincial government picked up approximately 70% of the cost,” he said, “Is that still the case?”

“The cost share has changed, now it’s closer to 90/10 on the infrastructure; with 10% being raised by the community,” Cohen responded. 

“For the past 5 or 6 years, we’ve kept our commitment to give $180,000,” said Mayor Pankow, “I hope council sees fit to continue to support this.”

“On behalf of the hospital and our patients and volunteers, thank you for your continued support of safe, high-quality patient care at our hospital,” Cohen said.

Article by Janelle Labelle