TB Vets, with the help of generous donors, funded a transport ventilator for Squamish General Hospital (SGH), making it safer for Sea to Sky Corridor healthcare teams to transfer patients to larger tertiary hospitals in Lower Mainland.
The hospital’s previous equipment was outdated and did not have the valuable capability of newer machines.
With the new TB Vets-funded ventilator, the need to intubate patients is reduced, resulting to smoother hospital transfers and fewer long-term complications. The equipment is also multi-functional and can be used on patients of all ages, from newborns to adults. Additionally, having a standardized equipment across Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton (also funded by TB Vets donors) will help increase the efficiency of hospital staff who work in all three locations.
We have needed this piece of equipment for many years. [In 2018], one of our physicians spent hours ventilating a newborn baby by hand while awaiting a critical care transfer team. This is a top-of-the-line piece of equipment that will be used to save lives in our hospital. Thank you TB Vets for supporting rural hospitals in BC.
Dr. Rua Read CCFP-EM, SGH Emergency Department
Without the support of TB Vets donors like you, these communities, and many others like them, would still be facing the challenge of providing the best possible care without having adequate respiratory equipment.
Squamish General Hospital is a 21-bed hospital, serving 23,000 local residents, as well as many visitors and residents of Britannia Beach, Furry Creek and other small communities nearby. On average, every year the hospital sees over 12,000 visits to its Emergency Department; 3,000 hospital admissions; and around 100 patients requiring transfers to Vancouver.*