PERTH – Local healthcare officials, doctors, nurses, patients and volunteers will take to the airwaves of Lake 88.1 Radio on Thursday, (Oct. 15) for a live 12-hour fundraising radiothon in support of local hospitals. 

The station is partnering with the Almonte General Hospital Fairview Manor Foundation, the Carleton Place and District Memorial Hospital Foundation, the Great War Memorial Hospital Foundation in Perth and the Smiths Falls Community Hospital Foundation for the second event of this kind, after having to cancel the radiothon originally scheduled for last May because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organizers are planning a full day of interviews and information segments to increase the awareness of local health care facilities and to highlight specific equipment needs that require funding.

“Despite the incredible amounts of government money being spent on COVID-19 care, our local hospitals are under increasing financial pressure to maintain their facilities and equipment in order to provide quality healthcare,” station owner Brian Perkin said. “But not everyone knows that some of the funding for our local facilities has to come solely from the community.”

Perkin says one of the little-known facts about healthcare funding is each hospital in Ontario is funded by a general budget that pays for heat, hydro, maintenance and the salaries of nursing and support staff.

“That budget does not cover the purchase of medical equipment to provide patient care,” Perkin said. “Medication pumps, surgical equipment, vital signs monitors, specialized beds, etc. are all purchased from funds donated by members of the community – not through provincial dollars.”

The radiothon will highlight the need for 28 new intravenous pumps at a cost of $5,000 each for the Almonte General Hospital (AGH) for use in all clinical areas including Emergency, OBS, Medical/Surgery. Another major priority at AGH is the continued fundraising drive to bring a CT Scan to the hospital to provide medical imaging at a cost of $2.2 million. 

Both AGH chair Dave Perley and AGH FVM Foundation chair Rob Scott will be on the radiothon, as will hospital president and CEO Mary Wilson Trider, Put Yourself in the Picture campaign co-chair Paul Virgin and foundation managing director Al Roberts.  Mississippi Mills Mayor Christa Lowry will also make a guest appearance.

All three of the other hospitals will also share their ongoing clinical equipment needs through interviews and stories as well.

On radiothon day, all of the radio station’s on-air hosts will share stories from some incredible patients and volunteers whose lives have been changed and saved thanks to the generosity of local donors. The excitement of radiothon day will also be shared online at lake88.ca.

For 12 hours, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., the phones will be manned by volunteers who will take donations from listeners wishing to support any or all the four partner hospital foundations.

“Anyone who lives in this region of Eastern Ontario will have a very high likelihood of personally benefiting from the equipment funded through local donations,” urologic surgeon Dr. Peter Roney said. “Most of us will make use of our local hospitals at some point in their lives.  So when you make a donation to the local foundation, you are making a donation to yourself and your family.”