$7M cardiac kick for KGH

Photo: Contributed

A $7-million campaign was launched Tuesday to bring advanced heart rhythm services to Kelowna General Hospital.

The KGH Foundation's Right Here at KGH campaign will keep Interior patients closer to home.

Every year, hundreds of patients from across the Interior must wait up to eight weeks for a bed to become available at hospitals in the Lower Mainland or on Vancouver Island. 

Bringing a state-of-the-art electrophysiology lab to KGH will make it the regional hub for IH’s Cardiac Sciences program.

“The KGH Foundation makes it possible for these advanced services to be available right here in the Interior because of the support that is provided by the community,” said foundation CEO Doug Rankmore. “Working together we are able to provide funding to allow services like cardiac electrophysiology to be offered sooner than may have otherwise been the case. This is part of what makes KGH an advanced healthcare facility.”

“As cardiac physicians and surgeons, we are absolutely working arm-in-arm with the KGH Foundation to bring EP to KGH. We’ve already seen first-hand how donors can have direct impact on the quality and accessibility of patient care we can deliver," said Dr. Kathryn Brown, medical director of IH cardiac diagnostics. 

The goal is to have the EP lab operational by the summer of 2020, and it will provide over 450 life-saving therapies per year.

Heart rhythm services encompass the evaluation and treatment of patients with a variety of cardiac rhythm disorders, also known as arrhythmia. 

Currently, only basic heart rhythm services are available at KGH, one of five cardiac centres in B.C. and the only one east of Metro Vancouver.

Arrhythmias are projected to be the leading cause of death in Canada by 2020.