Government announces funding for parents and newborns
Government announces funding for parents and newborns
Premier Kathleen Wynne was at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto today to announce funding for the new Ontario Fetal Centre. This new centre is an investment of $4 million and will support families with increased access to world-renowned specialists and ground-breaking surgeries for their children. The new centre is a collaboration between the Sinai Health System and Sick Kids Hospital.
The Premier was spoke about the importance of bringing together experts from around the world to improve fetal care, research and education.
“Today we are here to announce the new Ontario Fetal Centre, a remarkable joint effort between Sinai Health System and SickKids hospital — the first of its kind in Canada.”
This centre will bring together leading specialists in fetal care, providing pregnant women in Ontario with greater access to some of the most advanced in-utero surgeries.
“Government has a role to play in easing what’s often a new parent’s biggest worry – will my child be healthy?” Premier Wynne told a crowd of caregivers, nurses and doctors this morning. “We’re helping to put their minds at ease by creating the first centre in Canada for advanced care for babies at risk while they are still in the womb.”
The new centre will provide timely, leading-edge care for pregnant women whose baby has been diagnosed in utero with a condition that may require highly specialized medical care, such as heart or spinal surgery in the womb. The government will give families more choices when having a baby by providing access to midwives, who are experts in low-risk pregnancy, birth and care for newborns, for more than 6,700 more families this year.
“This investment will ensure that families facing high-risk pregnancy can get advanced treatments without having to leave the province,” the Premier confirmed.
Ontario is also phasing in a screening program to test newborns for the risk of permanent hearing loss, so families can get treatment or support sooner. Newborn Screening Ontario screens all newborns in Ontario for a range of serious, treatable diseases, amounting to over 145,000 screens annually.
Expanding support for families is part of the government’s plan to support care, create opportunity and make life more affordable during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes free prescription drugs for everyone under 25, and 65 or over, through the biggest expansion of medicine in a generation, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, and easier access to affordable child care.
