The laboratory staff at the Barrhead Healthcare Centre are able to see things a lot clearer now, thanks to Tree of Hope fundraising campaign.
About two weeks ago the hospital received two brand new microscopes, thanks to the generosity of Barrhead area residents and businesses who donated to the Tree of Hope.
The Tree of Hope campaign is a fundraising initiative used by many hospitals and health care centres across Canada to help raise money for much needed equipment.
In the Barrhead area contributors help decorate the hospital’s Chirstmas Tree Of Hope by buying Christmas bulbs and decoratations from $10 to $1,000.
Lori Begert, Barrhead Healthcare Centre lab supervisor, said she was ecstatic when a committee made up of doctors and nurses who work in the hospital decided that the money raised by the campaign would go towards purchasing new microscopes.
In recent years the hospital has used the Tree of Hope money to purchase equipment such as Panda Warmers and scopes for the Endoscopy department.
While Begert said those pieces are crucial so are microscopes.
“Having a proper microscope is so important,” Begert said, adding that almost anytime anyone visits a hospital the microscope is used.
She said perhaps one of the most common tests doctors order for their patients is a Complete Blood Count (CBC).
“A CBC can diagnose so many things, from leukemia, to bleeding disorders to malaria,” Begert said. “It gives doctors and other medical workers just such a huge picture of what is going on.”
One of the new microscopes will be dedicated for tests on blood work.
The other microscope will be used for urine and semen analysis to help doctors diagnose infections.
She said while the microscopes the healthcare centre were using were still serviceable, their best years were behind them and they were long overdue for replacement.
The problem Begert said, is that it is difficult for hospitals to get equipment such as microscopes replaced, as like most hospital equipment, they tend to be expensive. A microscope of the quality that is needed for a hospital lab can cost anywhere between $15,000 to $17,000.
Another stumbling block to obtaining new hospital equipment is Alberta Health Service’s procurement system.
In an interview with the Leader in November, Lois Burletoff, Barrhead Health Care Centre site manager, said because of the way AHS funds hospitals, there is often a long wait list for hospitals who seek equipment through conventional channels, adding the hospital had been on the waiting list for microscopes for two years.
As for if these new microscopes will make testing any quicker, Begert said she wasn’t sure, but said they would help aid in diagnosis.
“The quality of the picture is much better and it will definitely help with user fatigue,” she said, adding that one of the old microscopes couldn’t be adjusted properly and to compensate it was placed on a stack of text books.
Currently only one of the new microscopes is in use. In order to ensure their accuracy the microscopes must undergo a period of testing and calibration, a process that will take another couple of weeks.
