A fund that helps patients at the Dartmouth General Hospital go home safely, just received a large donation from one of the largest banks in Canada.
Scotiabank gifted $250,000 to the Dartmouth General Hospital (DGH) Foundation to their Patient Essentials Fund to provide patients who need help, with basic needs.
President and CEO of the foundation, Stephen Harding tells our newsroom, it’s for things like gift cards for food or medication, clothing, socks, sneakers as well as taxi and parking vouchers.
“Things that [are] for the most vulnerable people or marginalized population …this fund gives our social workers access to tools to help bring dignity and get patients home from the hospital.”
The need is huge
The pilot for the fund started this summer and has taken off.
Harding says it started with their team of social workers who approached them about the daily situations they are facing.
“[They] are in the foundation office hourly. It’s incredible the need that’s out there. We’re seeing so many patients who are, you know, unhoused or living so close to the margins that they need help.”
With the help of this program, they can continue to heal at home.
“They have been in the hospital for two weeks. Everything in their fridge has gone bad. Simple things like a gift card to Sobeys can help them replace those items in their fridge so they can eat healthy again.”
Perfect match
The partnership with Scotiabank is what Harding calls a “match made in heaven”.
“When we pitched the idea to Scotiabank, they really embraced it.”
Harding says Scotiabank really stepped up to help and when the cheque was presented at the event last week, some were “moved to tears”.
Some ideas to help, he says, are also just really simple.
“We had a patient in hospital who …the only thing keeping them from going home again was getting a CPAP machine for their sleep apnea, that was very severe. So, this fund actually bought a CPAP machine for this person, and he got home again.”
He adds, the patients are thankful, the social workers are thankful, and it’s just been incredible.
