4 years later, no sign of promised electrophysiology suite at SMGH

CTV Kitchener: Problems with cardiac care Despite a $2.6M boost from the province, St. Mary’s General Hospital still has some cardiac care issues. Abigail Bimman reports.

There are 11 hospitals in Ontario that perform cardiac surgeries.

Ten of them have electrophysiology suites in their cardiac care units. The only exception is St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener.

In 2012, the province announced that it would create an electrophysiology suite at St. Mary’s – but four years later, there’s no suite and no timetable to bring one to Kitchener.

“We’re certainly optimistic that the ministry is going to come through soon,” hospital president Don Shilton said in an interview.

At a committee meeting at Queen’s Park on Wednesday, Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Michael Harris pushed Health Minister Eric Hoskins to move the project forward.

“We’ve got the promise,” he said.

“We need the paperwork.”

Hoskins responded by saying that “dollars will be made available” for the suite, but did not specify when that would happen.

Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife likewise says the province should live up to the commitment made in 2012.

“There’s a cost to not honouring those commitments – there’s a cost to patient care, and there’s a cost to the overall system,” she said.

Until St. Mary’s gets its own electrophysiology suite, patients needing that treatment will continue to be referred to clinics in places like Hamilton, London and Toronto.