By Cheryl Jahn

Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation targets new equipment

Nov 27, 2024 | 11:56 AM

PRINCE GEORGE – At this point, it’s an empty room. A construction site at the University Hospital of Northern BC. But it is adjacent to where a special, although ancient, piece of equipment designed to perform various diagnostic tests. It will be home to a piece of equipment called StarGuide.

“This year, we’re doing the StarGuide system, which is aimed to support cardiac and cancer patients and everybody in between,” explains Aimee Cassie, CEO of the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation. “It’s really focussed on diagnostics, the diagnostics department here at UHNBC. This is an essential piece that we did with a price tag of $1.6 million. So we’re looking to bring as much money as we can through Festival to support this purchase. And, of course, all of the dollars that we raise at Festival stay right here, stay at UHNBC, directly supporting our patients in the North.”

In the simplest of terms, diagnostic imaging lets doctors look inside the body for clues about a medical condition. And the equipment in question – StarGuide – is essential in that work.

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“With getting the new piece of equipment, we are able to increase the throughput of our patients. Nuclear medicine tests tend to be longer; just by the nature of how they are designed,” says Dr. Gurpreet Narang, Radiologist with UHNBC. “But this new piece of equipment helps us do the same test in a shorter period of time.”

The benefits are multiple: The specialist can see more patients, they will eventually be able to do different, newer and more complex procedures and it will be a much-needed addition to the new cardiac care facility, one built. But for Dr. Narang, having the procedures done here, closer to home, is the biggest asset of all.

“I think that’s kind of what I would say is to me as a radiologist would be important that you’re doing it as a team development and not having to rely on somebody else to provide us the pictures or take care of the patients by sending them away, whereas we are developing expertise locally.”

And developing locally is what the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation is all about. And there are countless examples of that since 1991.

“Of course, opening the cardiac care unit last December; that was a big undertaking. That was over $1,000,000 that was raised through Festival of Trees,” says Cassie. “So opening that last year was such a feat for our community and that first step in bringing stronger cardiac care to northern BC, as well as the development that’s ongoing for the neonatal intensive care unit. That was a big project to celebrate our 30 years and support our littlest patients in the North. So that one’s still coming to fruition, but we’re really, really proud of that.”

The Festival of Trees starts Wednesday at the Conference and Civic Centre and runs through to Decemeber 1. Plenty of opportunities to help build a better healthcare system in the North.