Canadian business icon Jim Pattison is making a $4-million matching donation to support Surrey Hospitals Foundation’s fundraising campaign to upgrade equipment inside the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre. In this video series, join us in exploring some of the 56 clinics providing vital health care for the community.
The current Surrey Hospitals Foundation campaign supports the care provided at the 56 clinics at the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre, including the Department of Surgery, recognized centre of excellence serving not only the city of Surrey but also the entire Fraser Valley and beyond.
With more than 70 highly specialized surgeons, the Department of Surgery in Surrey includes over 10 medical specialities, including thoracic surgery, orthopedics, general surgery, urology, plastic surgery and more, notes retinal surgeon Dr. Steve Levasseur.
A tertiary care centre that provides a wide range of services, “six operating rooms are stocked with state-of-the-art equipment and managed by an amazing team of nurses and surgeons,” Dr. Levasseur says. “The setting and staff together creates an atmosphere that makes people feel at ease in periods of their lives where it’s quite stressful.”
One of the key areas of surgical excellence at the centre is the surgical retina group, which welcomes people from the industry who come from all over the world to observe surgeries and also collaborate to design new instruments to facilitate the improvement of treatment.
“The equipment and technologies that have been purchased through the Surrey Hospitals Foundation allows us to provide patients with the best visual outcomes,” Dr. Levasseur says.
For example, “because we’re involved in Fellowship training, and there’s no room for error in retinal surgery, it’s difficult for a Fellow who’s never done retinal surgery to perform surgery on a real patient. We’ve been able to purchase one of only five VRmagics, a virtual reality machine that teaches Fellows how to perform surgeries and develop surgical skills so that when they graduate, they’re now safely able to practice their new skills on patients, under our guidance.
“Donor support is critical to allowing us to purchase equipment that is state-of-the art and lets us practice at the best of our abilities, which ultimately results in the best care possible for our patients.”
The Department of Surgery serves the 56 specialty clinics at the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre. Help the Centre’s medical teams continue providing leading-edge care: Donate today at DoubleYourDonation.ca and Jim Pattison will match your donation!