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 Equipment that was once state-of-the-art is out-of-date.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.

Your support can help PRHC’s doctors perform more precise tumour removals and reduce surgery wait times

In the moments immediately following surgery, many breast cancer patients ask one important question: “Did you get it all?”

Dr. Brie Banks, a general surgeon at PRHC, knows how much this question means to them. It’s not just about the surgery.

“When patients ask, ‘Did you get it all?’ they’re really asking if they have permission to hope,” says Dr. Banks. “They want to know if the surgery went well and if they’re on the road to recovery.”

Breast cancer affects 12,500 women every year in Ontario, and those numbers continue to rise. Nearly all of those women will need surgery as part of their treatment—a lumpectomy being one of them.

Waiting for cancer surgery can be unbearable. Time crawls.

Patients have many worries: Is the cancer spreading? Will the surgery work? What will I look like after?

When patients arrive hours early at PRHC on the morning of their surgery, currently the first thing on the to-do list is having an eight-inch wire inserted into the breast by a radiologist, to mark the tumour.

Then, the patient waits, sitting for hours in a hospital gown with the wire protruding. It’s uncomfortable and frightening.

If the wire shifts, it complicates the surgery, making it difficult to remove all of the tumour without taking too much healthy tissue. It’s a process that adds anxiety and risk to an already difficult day.

There is a technology that can improve this aspect of breast cancer patient care and transform the experience for thousands of breast cancer patients in our region. It can make surgery easier and more precise, and reduce a patient’s worry and wait. It’s called breast seed localization technology and the PRHC Foundation is committed to funding it at PRHC.

With this new technology, a radiologist will place a tiny radioactive seed, as small as a grain of rice, instead of a wire to mark the cancer. This can be done a month before surgery and takes only 15 minutes. After placing the seed, patients can go back to their daily lives.

Then, during surgery, surgeons use a special tool to find and remove the tumour using the seed as a guide. This results in less scarring and physical change to the breast.

Beyond improving patient care, this new wireless technology will allow Dr. Banks and her colleagues to perform more lumpectomies—without the time constraints that come with wire placement on the day of surgery. With breast seed localization, doctors at PRHC can operate on three more breast cancer patients a day. More surgeries will mean more patients get the care they need, sooner. 

Dr. Banks says donor support will directly shape the care she can provide, especially since the government doesn’t fund hospital equipment at PRHC. “Your donation will allow more patients to hear those comforting words, ‘We got it all,’ and give them hope.”

She became a donor herself because she’s seen the difference this technology makes in the patient experience during an already challenging time. “It offers a better option for breast cancer surgery. I want this available for my patients.”

You, too, can help shape the future of patient care at your hospital. To donate or for more information, call 705-876-5000 or click here.

Pediatric Cancer Care Expansion

Childhood cancers are on the rise and PRHC is seeing the effects. PRHC’s pediatric cancer care program supports the greater region of Peterborough City and County, City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, eastern portions of the Region of Durham, and the Haliburton Highlands. Last year there were 605 pediatric cancer patient visits to the hospital by an average of 22 patients. This represents a 35% increase over the past four years.

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Digital Pathology

PRHC provides innovative, individualized and compassionate services across the spectrum of cancer care – including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship/palliative care. The Health Centre serves a regional area of 600,000 people and the number of cancer patients doctors, nurses and staff see at PRHC has grown significantly. Last year alone, there were over 23,000 patient visits to the Cancer Clinic.

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Cardiac Electrophysiology Lab

The time has come to reinvest in PRHC’s Cardiac Centre for Excellence, unlocking new opportunities and ensuring the people, infrastructure,
systems and programs are in place to empower world-class cardiac care across the spectrum. With the first phase of this reinvestment complete – the renovation and upgrading of PRHC’s two Cardiac Cath Lab suites – PRHC is focused on the introduction of a new service to the region: electrophysiology.

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Hybrid Operating Room

A state-of-the-art hybrid operating room combines the strengths of a classic operating room and an interventional radiology suite. There, specialized clinical teams can perform multiple open and minimally invasive operations on the same patients, on the same day, in the same room. Revolutionizing vascular care, this investment will result in safer and more seamless, comfortable and cost-effective care, with better patient outcomes: less pain and complications, shorter hospital stays and rehabilitation – ideal for frail vascular patients.

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