New clinic will improve patient care, consolidate services for transplant patients.

WINNIPEG, May 16, 2019 – Thanks to two anonymous gifts to the Health Sciences Centre Foundation totalling $3 million, the Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg will now be able to develop a new Ambulatory Care Clinic for transplant patients. The clinic will be housed on the third floor of the Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine on the HSC campus.

The total cost of the project is approximately $5.5 million. The balance of the required funding is coming from the Province of Manitoba. Over the past five years, HSC Winnipeg has performed an average of over 50 kidney transplants per year. With the new clinical space, the hospital will be able to increase that number to 70. This space will be used to meet the needs of kidney transplant patients—before and after their surgeries in Winnipeg—as well as lung and liver transplant patients waiting for their surgeries in other provinces.

"We are grateful for the generosity of these remarkable donors,” said Jonathon Lyon, President and Chief Executive Officer of the HSC Foundation. "This is yet another example of how donors to the Foundation are improving patient care and saving lives in Manitoba.”

Kidney (renal) disease is a growing problem and people living with it experience a reduced quality of life and risk premature death. Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice because it prolongs survival, improves quality of life, and is less costly than dialysis.

"We are proud to partner with the HSC Foundation and its donors in making this new Ambulatory Care Clinic a reality,” said Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister. "HSC is a recognized leader in renal care and kidney transplantation. This new clinic will improve the lives of transplant patients in Manitoba and ease the burden on their families.”

"We are moved by the generosity of these donors and grateful for the support of the Province of Manitoba,” said Dr. David Rush, Medical Director of the Adult Renal Transplant Program. "This new clinic will allow us to consolidate patient services in one space, increase our capacity, reduce wait times, and increase patient satisfaction while creating efficiencies and savings for the health care system.”

The new clinic follows recent HSC Foundation announcements of new space for interventional angiography at HSC, as well as a new endowment to support stem cell research in the treatment of burn survivors. Both initiatives were made possible through donations to the HSC Foundation.

This article is reprinted with permission from the Health Sciences Centre Foundation.

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