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The chance to win a luxury grand prize showhome or tropical vacations may be exciting, but the money raised by the Hospitals of Regina Foundation (HRF) spring home lottery will likely mean even more to sick kids and their families.
“You can’t put a price on what (HRF officials) do for us; it’s astounding,” said Nicki Bayfield-Ash, director of maternal and children’s programs for Regina and rural areas with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).
The spring home lottery is expected to raise about $2 million towards expanding the pediatrics program in Regina. Every year, 10,000 children are treated in Regina but the health authority and HRF are working to expand the program to treat 15,000 children per year.
Bayfield-Ash said the SHA has already worked to attract many different medical specialists to the province, but since most are based primarily out of Saskatoon, the plan is to bring them to Regina for travelling clinics once a week or a few times a month to treat patients in the Queen City.
“Excellent care begins at home and you can’t put a price on being near your family and your loved ones when you’re sick, and that goes double for children,” Bayfield-Ash said.
While some pediatric specialists like cardiologists and neurologists already do visiting clinics to treat children in Regina, Bayfield-Ash said the money raised by the lottery will help the SHA expand the program in stages and buy equipment so specialists can work in visiting clinics.
The SHA plans to start with specialties like respirology to test lung function and endocrinology to treat children with diabetes.
“Traditionally, children have either gone to Saskatoon or out of province for some of this care and our goal with the SHA is to bring them back home and get them seen as close as they can to where they live,” Bayfield-Ash explained.
While the specialists will continue to be based out of Saskatoon primarily, visiting clinics in Regina may help save families in the southern half of the province from the stress of constantly travelling long distances for appointments.
“There’s time lost from work, wages lost, time out of school for the kids, the cost of the travel (and) sometimes they have to stay overnight,” Bayfield-Ash said. “So to bring them closer to home, even though they may still travel a bit into Regina, it’ll be a lot easier.
“It’ll be a short daytrip and hopefully less time away from the family too because often it’s one parent taking the child and the rest of the family is at home. So it’s very stressful on families.”
Some of the short-term specific plans are to buy new equipment for pulmonary function testing, lung-testing equipment for children with respiratory conditions and equipment for sleep studies.
The grand prize showhome located in The Creeks is 4,000 square feet in size with four bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, a gym and a custom bar and wine room. The prize also includes $30,000 in cash.
The deadline for purchasing tickets for the grand prize is May 8.
Some of the additional prizes available in the lottery include a VIP trip to Maui with a ticket deadline of Feb. 28, a bonus prize of a trip to see the seven wonders of the world with a deadline of March 27, and the early bird prize package of a trip to Australia and an Audi with a deadline of April 24.
For information about all the prizes or to buy tickets, visit hrfHomeLottery.com.
Photos by Adriana Christianson/980 CJME