Help bring the best the world has to offer to our doorstep

Guided by Peterborough Regional Health Centre’s vision, led by campaign volunteers, and made possible by donors like you, we’ll propel innovation and transform care at our hospital through the Campaign for PRHC. Together, we’ll help advance the following areas of care: 

Cardiac Care – $11 million

Donor support is helping unlock opportunities and put the people, infrastructure, systems and programs in place to allow world-class cardiac care across the spectrum.

This includes building and equipping a new cardiac electrophysiology lab that will allow the cardiac care team to diagnose and treat patients with abnormal heart rhythms at PRHC for the first time in its history. These patients will no longer have to travel to hospitals as far away as Toronto or Kingston for lifesaving treatment.  

Cancer Care – $12 million

Donations are empowering experts to treat more patients with more cancer types, support earlier diagnosis, and ensure more effective treatments, close to home.

These life-changing advancements include digital pathology, a state-of-the-art, artificial intelligence supported laboratory technology that will help complete repetitive, time-consuming tasks in minutes instead of hours, so doctors can make diagnoses and treatment decisions sooner. 

PRHC will also expand pediatric cancer care, with a space designed for the expert delivery of cancer care to children. This will help keep vulnerable patients from becoming sicker, while lessening the big emotional and financial burden faced by families when they have to travel for their child’s lifesaving treatment.

Minimally Invasive Intervention – $14 million

Your gifts are allowing doctors, nurses and staff to treat patients with multiple life-threatening conditions – safely, quickly – in state-of-the-art new facilities like a hybrid operating room (OR). 

The advanced technology in a hybrid OR allows specialized care teams to perform multiple open and minimally invasive operations on the same patient, on the same day, in the same room. This means safer, more comfortable care and better results for a patient who would otherwise need multiple surgeries with months-long recovery time in between, if their health would even allow it. 

Mental Health – $4 million

Donors are helping to create healing environments and address increasing demand for care with modern mental health spaces. 

New areas at PRHC will include a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) courtyard – a safe, supportive outdoor space for some of the sickest patients in our hospital. PICU patients currently can’t go outside even though their stay could be weeks or months long. Research shows time outdoors improves outcomes and reduces length of stay in hospital, as well as the use of antidepressants.

PRHC will also help meet growing demand for psychiatric emergency care by expanding and improving the Crisis Response Unit in the Emergency Department. Increasing the size of the space will create a waiting area especially for children and youth in crisis and their families, as well as an accessible washroom with a shower, and a secure, short-stay area for high-risk patients who need enhanced nursing care. 

Urgent Needs – $17 million

Your gifts are enabling PRHC to respond quickly to the top emerging priorities each year, in areas like the Emergency Department, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and Breast Assessment Centre. 

Physician Innovation Accelerator Endowed Fund – $2 million 

Donations are helping PRHC invest in physician-driven research and creativity that will result in game-changing advances in patient care. The hospital will equip several doctors a year with the support to design, apply and evaluate their innovations. Not only will this benefit patients by helping them get out of hospital and back to their lives sooner, but it will also help PRHC attract and keep top-notch physicians.

A message from Dr. Lynn Mikula, PRHC’s President & CEO

Dr. Lynn Mikula, PRHC’s President & CEO, believes that Peterborough Regional Health Centre is at a crucial turning point and ready to accomplish great things, but that it won’t be possible without the support of PRHC Foundation donors. Endorsing the $60 million Campaign for PRHC, she says: 

“PRHC is a thriving organization that’s home to incredibly dedicated and compassionate professionals. But it’s safe to say that the last few years haven’t been easy ones—they’ve tested us all. However, everyone on our PRHC team continues to deliver the best care they can under these circumstances. 

Our hospital may have opened in 2008, but it was designed and built more than 16 years ago. Equipment that was once state-of-the-art is out-of-date. We’re running out of space. The population is growing and aging, leading to more complex care needs and increasing patient numbers. Plus, hospitals across Ontario have a shortage of healthcare workers. It’s taking a toll on our hardworking frontline professionals. 

There are obstacles—and we need fresh, smart, and creative ideas to address them. I’m confident that PRHC’s healthcare professionals are up to the challenge. Together, we’re ready to achieve great things!

In April 2024, we launched PRHC’s new vision for the future. It recognizes the realities we’re working within and reflects the inspiration, talent, and willingness of the PRHC team. Our people have the energy, expertise, imagination, and drive to respond to an evolving environment, but they can’t do it alone. Your support is critical to success in our mission to provide compassionate care and innovative solutions to our region’s healthcare challenges.

On behalf of everyone here at your regional hospital, thank you for supporting the $60 million Campaign for PRHC.” 

For more information or to support the Campaign for PRHC, please donate online or call 705-876-5000.

The impact of your early campaign support is being felt through exciting investments

PRHC Foundation’s $60 million Campaign for PRHC focuses on raising funds for extensive hospital advancements in cardiac care, cancer care, minimally invasive surgeries, interventional radiology, mental health and addictions services, and a physician-driven innovation accelerator research fund. Since 2020, the Foundation has been working with donors to build support for the campaign, and these efforts have already raised $45.5 million – or 75% – of the $60 million goal. 

The impact of the funds raised to date is being felt through exciting campaign investments already made – thank you! These include: 

  • A second MRI (pictured above) to facilitate up to 5,000 more procedures a year, addressing wait times from a 53% increase in demand and improving diagnostic care close to home
  • The upgrade and replacement of two Cardiac Cath Lab suites with state-of-the-art technology for better visualization and shorter, safer procedures
  • Two new cutting-edge CT scanners to support the early diagnosis of cancer and other conditions
  • The renovation and upgrade of the interventional radiology suites to enhance patient care and introduce endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) here for the first time to stop strokes as they’re happening
  • The upgrade of four general operating rooms with advanced minimally invasive tools so experts can perform essential surgeries with new, fluorescence-guided imaging and increased precision
  • The opening of the new Scotiabank Youth Eating Disorders Day Treatment Clinic to support youth aged 12-25 who need lifesaving care to normalize eating and restore weight
  • Urgent needs as identified by the hospital, including critical equipment and technology that supported PRHC’s new designation as a Level III Trauma Centre 
For more information or to support the Campaign for PRHC, please donate online or call 705-876-5000.

We can design our healthcare future or let it be designed for us

A message to donors from Lesley Heighway, PRHC Foundation’s President & CEO:

“What an incredible feeling it is to share the biggest news in our Foundation’s history: the launch of the $60 million Campaign for PRHC.

Walking the Health Centre hallways, I see firsthand the power and joy of your philanthropy. Your donations touch every part of our hospital, ensuring top-quality healthcare is available close to home. You’ve funded millions of dollars in equipment and technology, and the very building where we all receive care.

For some patients, your generosity has meant the difference between life and death. For others, it’s meant accessing the best care available instead of none at all. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

But our work isn’t done. Twenty-five years ago, donors started the campaign to build this hospital, and now, we stand on the cusp of the next generation of care.

Our Health Centre and the communities we serve face serious challenges, and we need creative, efficient solutions to tackle them. The choice is ours: design our healthcare future or let it be designed for us.

For 16 years, I’ve had the honour and privilege of working with generous and caring donors every day. The collective pride and sense of responsibility we feel for PRHC’s patients is unparalleled. So, at this pivotal moment in our journey, we’re rallying once again and rising to the occasion, refusing to accept the status quo.

Your gifts to the Campaign for PRHC uphold our shared belief that we are the architects of our healthcare future. By funding state-of-the-art technology, fuelling innovation, bringing lifesaving new services, and positioning our hospital to attract expert healthcare providers, we’re ushering in a new era of care for our region.

Together, we’re reimagining health and care at our hospital.

On behalf of everyone at the PRHC Foundation and PRHC, especially patients and their loved ones, thank you for your support.”

WATCH Heart of Healthcare, Episode 4, where Lesley Heighway talks to local media personality and Foundation donor, Mike Melnik, about the $60 million Campaign for PRHC – the biggest in its history – and addresses a common concern: Facing system-wide healthcare challenges, how can we make sure PRHC’s patients don’t get left behind?

For more information or to support the Campaign for PRHC, please donate online or call 705-876-5000.

Donor support helping surgeons see better to do better in PRHC’s operating rooms

With donor support, PRHC will introduce fluorescence-guided imaging technology to the hospital’s general operating suites for the first time. This innovation is part of a replacement and upgrading of outdated surgical tools, allowing PRHC’s general surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures with GPS-like precision – with less risk of complications for patients.

With fluorescence-guided imaging, contrast dyes or agents are injected into the patient’s bloodstream prior to surgery, making anatomical features, organs, nerves or even cancer cells, light up. That highlighting will help doctors use other new, advanced equipment, like ultra-high-definition scopes and monitors, enhanced cameras, and improved light sources, to locate, remove and reconnect tissues. PRHC general surgeon Dr. Joslin Cheverie explains why this is so important for patient care, using a common bowel surgery as an example.

“When a diseased or cancerous portion of colon is removed, the remaining healthy sections are joined back together. It’s critical that the repaired section have healthy blood flow, or the patient is at greater risk of complications,” she says. “With this technology, I’ll be able to make better, more informed decisions during surgery.”

Fluorescence-guided imaging and state-of-the-art surgical tools are an exciting element of a wider, $13 million reinvestment in minimally invasive interventions, which also includes interventional radiology.

Replacing the hospital’s surgical technology now will ensure PRHC’s experts have better visuals to more accurately perform lifesaving and life-changing operations – like colorectal cancer surgery, emergency appendectomies, hernia repairs and gallbladder removals – right here, safely, quickly and with less wait time.

It’s donors who will make this possible, funding advances in minimally invasive technology and techniques that empower physicians like Dr. Cheverie to treat more conditions, efficiently, without big cuts, using less anesthesia, and leaving behind nothing more than a tiny scar. 

For patients, that means less pain, reduced risk of infection, shorter hospital stays, and faster recovery. This is important for all patients, but especially those vulnerable to complications, including the more than 60,000 seniors in our region.

For more information on this investment, please call 705-876-5000 or to make a donation, please click here.

How true love inspired Audrey to give back

PRHC Foundation legacy donor and hospital volunteer Audrey Ashdown

In memory of Audrey Ashdown.

Audrey Ashdown moved to Peterborough with her husband and high school sweetheart, Bill, in 1959. She felt both excited and frightened. “It was a challenging time… But I had my life’s partner by my side,” she said.

Before long, their new home was surrounded by neighbours. They were delighted to see their children grow up with so many nearby playmates. Peterborough seemed the ideal place to raise a family, but life changed abruptly in 1982, when Bill suffered his first heart attack at only 52 years old.

Bill was rushed to PRHC. Doctors and nurses were able to stabilize him and Audrey was flooded with relief. Twenty years later, she would feel the same relief when Bill suffered another heart attack and his life was saved again at PRHC.

Audrey was grateful to still have Bill by her side after multiple cardiac events. She began volunteering at the hospital – a commitment she continued into her late eighties.

Audrey lost the love of her life when Bill passed away in 2013, but she felt overwhelming gratitude for the three decades they’d shared after his first heart attack. She’d also seen advancements and expansions of hospital services during her time as a volunteer. She felt it was a fitting choice to leave a gift to PRHC Foundation in her will.

Though she made sure to provide for her children in her will, Audrey viewed her legacy gift as one that would ultimately give back to them, too. “I want to ensure that my children, grandchildren, neighbours and friends will receive the same high calibre healthcare that I have benefited from,” she explained.

Audrey’s children are proud that their mother’s generosity has continued to make an impact on the community since her passing in 2021. Her legacy gift has helped sustain services at PRHC, providing high-quality care for people from across the region. Through her bequest, Audrey’s kindness lives on.

For more information on legacy and planned giving, or to share your legacy donor story, please contact Lesley Heighway, President & CEO, at 705-743-2121, ext. 3859 or send her an email.

Jennie says thanks for her care by helping ensure others can get the care they need

It was 5:30 p.m. by the time Jennie Ireland got the diagnosis she’d been dreading. Suddenly, she was a 42-year-old single mom with a seven-year-old son, aging parents, and she’d just been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Looking back, it was an awful time,” Jennie says. On sleepless nights, she worried about what her illness would mean for her son, Liam. Could she take him to hockey practice and help him with his schoolwork? Would she be there to watch him grow up? “But I refused to give up hope,” she says. “And receiving care at PRHC was my lifeline.”

Jennie explains that being able to get care in her community with donor-funded technology meant less worry. Without it, she would have had to travel to Toronto, Oshawa or even Kingston for months on end. “I believe it had a positive impact on my recovery,” she says. “Because I was able to get care close to home, I could focus on what mattered most: Getting better and keeping life as normal as possible for my son.”

Like many people, Jennie was surprised to find out that the government doesn’t fund hospital equipment and that a population of more than 600,000 relies on PRHC for care. This includes people from the city and county of Peterborough, the City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, east Durham, and the Haliburton Highlands.

Patients come to PRHC with a wide range of needs, from treatment for cancer, heart attacks and strokes, to surgery or mental health care. They may be seeking treatment in an emergency, or because of a chronic condition. Whatever the reason, Jennie wants to ensure that like her, others can get the care they need, close to home.

“I became a donor, volunteer fundraiser and a PRHC Foundation ambassador to help our hospital upgrade its technology so that more patients like me can get the care they need when they need it most,” says Jennie. “But PRHC can only do it with our help. I’d like everyone who can to join me in donating so doctors, nurses and staff have the best equipment to provide the best care.”

To donate, please call 705-876-5000 or click here.