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More sick kids will get treatment faster as child emergency services are being expanded at London Health Sciences Centre.
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The hospital is adding eight beds and two treatment rooms to its Children’s Hospital emergency department, expanding emergency care to 30 beds from 20, hospital officials announced on Wednesday.
The expansion, which took place in September, has reduced wait times at the department and has cared for 2,628 patients, officials say. It is being funded with $3 million in donor support from the hospital’s fundraising arm, the Children’s Health Foundation.
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“We’re really proud of this new space that has provided us with the opportunity to reduce capacity pressures and move patients into care spaces faster,” Rod Lim, director of paediatric emergency care at LHSC, said in a statement. “This is a great first step towards meeting the growing demands for specialty paediatric emergency services.”
Staff and physicians were consulted on the expansion, Lim noted.
“We’ve had such extraordinary pressures that we needed a solution, and this has had an immediate impact on patient flow. We’ll need to continue growing our capacity alongside our growing community, but I’m proud of where we are right now,” he said.
The two new procedure rooms are designed to provide a private and calm environment for children who require specialized care including treating lacerations, removing foreign objects or administering anesthesia, officials said.
In a statement, Ontario’s health minister, Sylvia Jones, said the expansion will be “expanding access to care for hundreds of families across the region.”
Each year, there are 47,000 visits and 36,000 patients going to Children’s Hospital’s emergency department.
“Children’s Health Foundation is very excited to fund this expansion to benefit the many children who use the emergency department,” added Scott Fortnum, chief executive London Children’s Health Foundation.
“We continue to raise funds for this important initiative and are so grateful to our donors for making this a reality.”
ndebono@postmedia.com
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