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Health care centre foundation turns to fundraising after million-dollar donation falls through

Whistler’s health care system suffered a major setback this summer when the $1 million dollar donation from the Nita Lake Lodge development was forced from the table, according to the chair of the Whistler Health Care Foundation.

Whistler’s health care system suffered a major setback this summer when the $1 million dollar donation from the Nita Lake Lodge development was forced from the table, according to the chair of the Whistler Health Care Foundation.

"If we’d got the Nita Lake money we really would have been well down that road of getting Teleradiology," said a disappointed Marnie Simon.

"It’s absolutely vital. We should have it now. It’s ridiculous that we don’t even have it now."

Without the donation, the foundation will now have to embark on a major fundraising campaign for the roughly $1.5 million digital system.

Simon said the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which oversees health care in the Sea to Sky corridor, has approved the Teleradiology equipment in the budget and the operating funds for it, but will not provide the capital for it.

"It’s a big thing if we have to raise all that money," said Simon, who remembers that it took a whole year to raise $100,000 for the last big piece of equipment at the health care centre, the C-Arm.

The $1 million was removed from the Nita Lake development after the donation was challenged as an "unrelated amenity," which should not be a part of the hotel/train station land deal.

Keith Lambert, who threatened the municipality with a lawsuit in May, said he never wanted to deprive the community of upgraded x-ray equipment.

"It’s not that we want to do the community out of those benefits," he said in an earlier interview with Pique Newsmagazine .

Instead he wanted the municipality to reconsider the size and scope of the project, slated to go at the end of Lake Placid Road on the south shores of Nita Lake.

Though no writ was ever filed, as a precaution the municipality completely removed the health care donation from the project.

Just over half of the Nita Lake Lodge donation would have gone directly into Teleradiology equipment, which would revolutionize the x-ray system at the Whistler Health Care Centre.

Instead of using chemicals to develop x-ray film, Teleradiology makes the whole system digital, so health care staff can read x-rays on the computer and send images to other sites linked to the system. In this way doctors at different sites can confer about a patient with the information on computer screens rather than describing the injury over the telephone.

The ultimate goal is to link the health centres in the corridor through this digital system.

"We need it for Whistler, Pemberton and Squamish ASAP because the x-ray equipment is wearing out," said Dr. Bruce Mohr, chief of staff at the Whistler Health Care Centre.

"It needs to be replaced and rather than have the old chemicals and photographic equipment and paper... you might as well just go to a digitalized system when you upgrade."

The three foundations in the corridor pledged to work together as a tri-board to get the money into the whole community.

"But with that Nita Lake money it was a wonderful kick-start because that would have brought everything we needed for Whistler as well as the major component that could be kept at any of the three sites," said Simon.

"(It’s) a very big downer for the community."

Once digital, the foundation could then look at getting a CAT scan for the health care centre further down the road.

"The CAT scan and Teleradiology are two of the key cornerstones of the things that we need for the Olympics," said Simon.

"But we need more than that. We can’t wait until 2010.

"We should have had them yesterday."

Mohr said the Teleradiology is not directly linked to the Olympics because it’s equipment that Whistler needs now.

"We’re busy," he said.

"We see a lot of trauma and whether the Olympics come or not we want to enhance what we have here."

But he admits that if the centre wants to get enhanced diagnostics in the future, like a CAT scan, it makes sense to have the digitalized system already in place.

Meanwhile, the foundation is gearing up for fundraisers for the digital equipment throughout the corridor.

Proceeds from the seventh annual Mountain Building Centres/TIM-BR-Mart Charity Golf Tournament, on Monday, Sept. 8 at the Squamish Valley Golf and Country Club, will go toward digital radiology.

Also in September the Whistler Health Care Foundation is putting on a golf and tennis tournament. The golf tournament will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at the Whistler Golf Club and teams of two players will play in a "shotgun start" competition.

The tennis tournament will take place on Saturday, Sept. 20 at the Whistler Racquet & Golf Resort with a reception to follow. There will be competitive and recreational divisions.

The cost to enter both Whistler tournaments is $412. The separate tournaments cost $390 for golf and $182 for tennis. The prices include taxes, the reception and the chance to win door prizes.

Teams can register at the Whistler Racquet & Golf Club at 604-932-1991.

The foundation is also looking for people to sponsor one or more holes for golf at roughly $150 or to donate prizes.