GOVERNMENT FUNDING CANNOT KEEP 3 - Friday, January 6, 1989 - North Shore News UP WITH COSTS Private contributors help LGH in a variety of ways PRIVATE contributions from individuals and groups are integral to the operation, maintenance and growth of Lions Gate Hospital. By MAUREEN CURTIS Contributing Writer Government funding alone can- not keep up with the escalating costs of equipmen: purchase and replacement and medical research at the hospital, bu! two organiza- tions are helping to make up the difference. Their names may be similar, but the Lions Gate Hospital Founda- tion and Lions Gate Medical Research Foundation are two en- tirely different bodies that raise money for entirely different pro- jects. While the medical research foundation allows Lions Gate Hospital doctors to carry out local studies, the LGH Foundation is the gift receiving arm of the hospi- tal that looks at all of the hospi- tal’s needs. Initially a property holding body, the LGH Foundation was rechartered a couple of years ago to be the official fund-raising arm of the hospital. Melanie Weating was hired a year ago as director of development. Up until then, contributions were made by individuals, service groups and corporations, as well as the hospital auxiliary, which has several different ways of raising money and providing help. “A lot of research is needed for good fund raising. You have to find out who has the resources and the interest in helping,’’ says chairman of the LGH Foundation board Dave Brousson. “A lot of research is needed for good fund raising. You have to find out who kas the resources and the interest in helping.”’ - Dave Brousson LGH Foundation Chairman Connecting those people to hos- pital staff and hospital needs, is one of the most rewarding aspects of Wheating's job, she says. Response was tremendous last summer to a mailing that included a funding request for new intensive care monitors, accompanied by a letter from a local man, Judson Warner, who had recently speat some time in the LGH intensive care unit after a heart attack. That letter from Warner, who had approached the Foundation wanting to help, had resulted in DR. JOHN Hunt is carrying out diabetic research at Lions Gate Hospital. His is one of the many projects casried out by local doc- tors and funded by the Lions Gate Hospita) Medical Research Foun- dation. donations of $95,000 tc $100,000 by October. Some of the cheques received were for as much as $5 300. LGH was able to buy that $235,000 monitoring system for the intensive care unit, and the foundation has a hic of 1,600 local people it can continue to involve in the foundation's work. Along with the donations came letters of thanks from people who had received care at LGH, and Wheating made sure that hospital! staff saw them. Wheating has noted that LGH staff view their work as more than a job. “They want to do gooc work, but they may not have everything they need to provide the best possible care,’* she says. Input from hospital staff is im- portant when the foundation makes out its priority list of needs for funding. The foundation also does a Christmas mailing to former hos- pital patients, who often have special interests in projects that need funding. In one case, a man was driven by the death of his wife to begin his own fund-raising project to pay for the machine that might have saved her tife. The items that the money is be- ing raised for range from sophisticated pieces of medical equipment to the ‘‘basics’’ such as replacement of old hospital beds. While some individuals or groups prefer to donate or raise money for specific items, the foundation is also pleased to receive ‘‘unspecified’’ gifts, which can be put towards some of the emergency needs that come up. The foundation's more recent approach to fund raising has resulted in an increase from $129,000 raised in 1986-87 to $469,000 in 1987-88. The cost of raising that money was about 15 per cent, ‘‘very low for the first year,’’ according to Wheating. She hopes that increased use of volunteer efforts will lead to even better results in the future. ane Volunteers have long been im- portant to the Lions Gate Medical Foundation, which dates back to 1963. Supporting research projects of local doctors, the medical founda- tion gets enthusiastic support from people of the community and hos- pital staff, including 150 to 200 volunteers. Working on the interest from a $300,000 fund, the foundation concentrates on small research Projects of a ‘‘softer’’ sort. Non- clinical for the most part, the pro- posals the foundation funds are often to do with program development, and the testing of new forms of therapy. “Until our funding base is larger, we'll stick with our proven formula — funding smaller pro- : jects and providing secd funding,”’ ae says Valerie Young, the medical Sie research foundation's executive vice-president. NEWS photo Mike Waksfield LIONS GATE Hospital Director of Intensive Care Dr. Warren Mayo, demonstrates the working of the control board on a new critical care bed to LGH President Bob Smith and LGH Foundation Chairman David Brousson. Donations raised on the North Shore by the LGH Foundation helped pay for several of these beds, which allow patients to be weighed and x-rayed without being disturbed. eS SS Young says the foundation is somewhat unique in its policy of Putting up the ‘seed’ money doc- tors often need to be ready to app- ly for a bigger grant from other sources. ray Today ’S research is tomorrow’s health care.’’ - Dr. Phillip Cohen Lions Gate Medical Foundation President “This has resulted in about $250,000 to $300,000 worth of research funding coming to the North Shore,"’ says Young. The research projects tend to be inspired by the doctors’ «rea of work. The money provided by the foundation does not provide in- come for the doctors, but allows them to set up experimental studies and analyse data that may cither confirm or disprove their theories. The results of this work can very quickly lead to concrete results, within the community. “*Today's research is tomorrow's health care,’' says Dr. Phillip Cohen, foundation president. Through the foundation, Cohen has experimented with a procedure to treat colitis and Crohn's Disease, an alternative to the more unpleasant barium enema. “*It turned out to be a good test, though expensive until the techno- logy changes — but somebody has to do the pioneer work,'’ says Cohen. Dr. John Hunt has undertaken several projects concerning various aspects of diabetes, and is now working on an agent that could block the absorption of glucose. An ICBC-supported head injury project is looking at the possibility of computer-based rehabilitation. Obstetrician Dr. McMahon noted North Shore women tend to gain excessive weight during pregnancy and looked at the possible adverse effects on mother and fetus. Another study investigated the impact of “pet visitors’? at local long-term care facilities, while Dr. Philip Aldesman reviewed about 3,000 vasectomies performed lfocal- ly over the past 20 years, and found very few complications. These doctors are assisted in putting their applications together by Dr. Stephen Milstein, a part- time research consultant to the foundation. He is partially funded through a Health and Welfare Canada program. Valerie Young promotes research at community hospitals because ‘“‘that’s where the people with various illnesses are.’” The results of this local research are increasingly finding their way into medical publications and leading to changes for the better at the hospital and community level. “We're almost too successful. There’s more research than we can fund,’’ says Young.